Essex, England’s The 1957 Tail-Fin Fiasco just dropped The 3 Song Drive, an EP that follows up on 2014’s Private Jet Flashback. The title is a tad misleading, as this short stack of songs is actually four tracks high, but the bonus comes mainly in the quality — not quantity — department.
In case you didn’t get the news the first time around, The 1957 Tail-Fin Fiasco is a pop-rock band where a Wurlitzer shares equal status to an electric guitar, a witty turn of a phrase prevails over overused platitudes and next chord that’s played isn’t necessarily a foregone conclusion. This EP continues down that righteous path.
“Kiki vs. Alice From The Breakers” is a lovable song about a lovable junkie from Long Island, the “girl the silver syringe.” The perfectly collegial union of Malcolm Moore’s melodies and David Myers’ lyrics continues on through the next three tunes, as with alluring harmony vocals and a buoyant groove for “Big Yellow Box.” “Byron Bay” is blues in the verses and snappy pop in the choruses while “Blended” breezily changes up tempos instead, both songs pointing up Tail-Fin’s fearlessness in stuffing wrinkles and change-ups into songs only three or four minutes long.
It’s one of several things that apparently pop stars can’t be bothered with anymore; making the music entirely by hand is another. But these little things are the very things that The 1957 Tail-Fin Fiasco are about, superstars alongside XTC and Squeeze in an alternate universe in which pop music doesn’t insult your intelligence and sometimes even challenges it.
The 3 Song Drive is now available for sale on Bandcamp. You should take it out for a spin.
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