Pelican West Plus by Haircut 100

Haircut 100 were the archetypal Smash Hits band back in the early eighties - clean cut young men with boy next door good looks, and I’m afraid to say I was a little bit dismissive of them as lightweight disposable tinkly bonk pop. The lyrics didn’t make any sense as far as I could tell - why was he so worried about going down to the lake, for starters?

Anyhoo, aside from the singles which instantly take me back to that halcyon summer of 1981, the rest of this album is surprisingly good. It’s much more in a Latin jazz funk style than I was expecting with slap bass, horns, marimbas and tinkly pianos. I would happily listen to a couple of tracks from this on a sunny evening with a cocktail in hand and not give two hoots about why he is singing about green escalators. Favourite-shirt-tastic!

https://album.link/gb/i/1308813098