world of twee

I notice that on its weekly new album reviews page, last Friday's Independent awarded a solid, if unspectacular, three stars out of five to the new offering by a band called Stornoway. Probably fair enough: from what I know they're solid, if unspectacular, purveyors of generally inoffensive tunes. Reviewer Andy Gill's parting shot though is that "they can't rock and roll for toffee". The general tone of what he says seems to suggest that he'd like to add "...and you kind of wish they did, frankly".

But Andy, there have been many, many bands who in their time have been totally unable to rock and roll. And as far as I'm concerned I'm not sure we would have wanted it any other way.

Besides all the glitzy New Romanticism and power pop around at the time, in the early 1980s a number of bands were quietly making names for themselves in a kind of off-shoot of the indie canon which was being established during these years. These were bands who had none of the testosterone-fuelled swagger and posturing of the leather clad metal rockers of the early seventies, none of the phlegmy vitriol of the punk rock explosion. Yes, they had guitars but none of the meaty riffs which had been rife in the previous decade. They played chords in the form of rhythmically percussive syncopations or delicately jangly arpeggios, sometimes in a gentle, almost Latin style.

These were bands usually made up of whey-faced (often Scottish) young men--occasionally women--wearing long tweedy coats with collars turned up against the wind and the rain. Regulation hairstyle (both sexes): long at the top--often quiffed--and short at the sides.

As if to celebrate the general wilful rejection of machismo, fans of this music, typically self-deprecating, proudly labelled it "twee".

And some of it was pretty good...

• Orange Juice - Falling and Laughing (1980)
• Everything But The Girl - Night and Day (1983)
• Aztec Camera - Walk Out to Winter (1983)
  
• Bluebells - I'm Falling (1984)
• Go-Betweens - Bachelor Kisses (1984)
• Lotus Eaters - First Picture of You (1984)
• Wedding Present - Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft (1987)
  
• My Bloody Valentine - Strawberry Wine (1987)
  
• Bradford - Skin Storm (1988)
  
• Blue Nile - Headlights On The Parade (1989)
• Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas (1990)
  

More recent decades have continued to produce their share of "tweeness" and hoorah for that. Here are some of the bands who held out against the Mancy swagger of those brash Oasis louts during the Britpop era:

• Lush - Sweetness and Light (1990)
  
• Blueboy - Boys Don't Matter (1994)
• Bluetones - Slight Return (1995)
  
• Belle and Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister (1996)
• Trash Can Sinatras - How can I Apply? (1996)
• The Sundays - Summertime (1997)

...and here are some from the last ten years or so. These days they're sometimes Norwegian, like the Kings of Convenience. Occasionally, like the Postmarks, they're (whisper it) American.

• Spearmint - Scottish Pop (1999)
• Kings of Convenience - Toxic Girl (2001)
• Camera Obscura - Lloyd I'm Ready to be Heartbroken (2006)
• Postmarks - Goodbye (2009)

I've just finished reading "Falling and Laughing" (see also above) by Grace Maxwell. It's the fantastically uplifting account of her partner Edwyn Collins's recent return to music-making and a life of at least partial normality after suffering two massive strokes in 2005. It seems that in their early days Orange Juice used to revel in the Twee philosophy:

They used to say they were 'anti-rock'. In the early days, Glasgow audiences used to chant 'Poofs! Poofs! Poofs!' at them. They liked that just fine. There was a campness in their delivery, deliberately affected to annoy the manly men of rock.

Take it away Edwyn...



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