The Raincoats – The Raincoats (1979)

Next one up is another from the Newquay 'CDs for a pound' haul, The Raincoats' eponymous debut album from 1979.

I knew nothing of this other than having heard the name of the band at time of release, and it was apparently a favourite album of Kurt Cobain.

Now, 46 years, what might have sounded cute and lo-fi, now, to me sounds ham fisted and amateurish, and while comparisons might be trite (I don't know why, the sound isn't dissimilar) there's nothing here that The Slits hadn't done, far more excitingly on their first album (Cut), released two months earlier, and I'm not talking about the album cover.

There's even one song that appears on both, seemingly with each band taking writing credit - Adventures Close To Home. Palmolive was, of course, drummer with both bands, although left The Slits before Cut was recorded. But there's not much to get the pulse racing. There's a version of The Kinks' Lola, described in Wikipedia as an off-kilter cover. I don't think a woman singing a song as a man, without changing the gender pronouns in the song was particularly groundbreaking and off kilter in 1979, and it isn't now.

The strongest track, is probably the band's debut single, Fairytale In The Supermarket, which wasn't on the original LP, but was added to the CD reissue, and penultimate track In Love works well around Vicky Aspinall's John Cale style violin. But, as a whole, it's disappointing.

Link to album tracks

2* - this hasn't aged well, and feels neither experimental nor exciting