THE SEASIDE

It was exactly a year ago that I discovered a band called Cardiacs and after purchasing the A Little Man And A House And The Whole World Window they skyrocketed into a position among my top ten all-time favorite bands. I really want to thank Trouserpress for recommending me to look up Cardiacs on iTunes, since it was there that I finally was able to get most of their hard to find back-catalog.

The Seaside was originally released back in 1984 and distributed by cassette only to be re-released in 1990 with a couple of omissions in the track-listing due to the loss of some original master tapes. Luckily most of these omissions resurfaced on later albums like A Little Man And A House And The Whole World Window and Sing To God, so this loss is strictly effecting the completionists out there. Besides, judging from the rough version of R.E.S. presented here, these songs did benefit from a polished treatment.

The album kicks off with the superb Jibber And Twitch which reminded me immediately of why I loved Cardiacs so much! There is just so much of everything mishmashed into this music that I can surely understand why the band received the RIO/Avant-Prog labeling even though they sound nothing like most other bands in this sub-category. Gena Lollabridgida starts off with an indie pop-sounding intro that originally didn't really impress me but did manage to grow on me with time. Hello Mr.Sparrow is where Cardiacs sound closest to their masterful performance on A Little Man And A House And The Whole World Window, while tracks like It's A Lovely Day and A Wooden Fish On Wheels help to spread that greatness evenly around the surface of this album.

Hope Day is the longest composition of the album giving the band a chance to jump all around the place until they finally take things down a notch... two minutes into their performance! Ice A Spot And A Dot On The Dog sounds like something that would have worked well on Sing To God with its strong focus on the guitar sound, while To Go Off And Things concludes the album on another upbeat high note that made me want to reset the album right after it was over!

There's really no denying that Cardiacs is a very unique band that has had undeservingly little attention from the general audience and The Seaside certainly highlights these unique qualities quite well. The only downsides to this album is that it lacks the coherency that the band achieved with their later releases and that the omission of a few tracks makes it quite short. Other than that, I really don't see why anyone would overlook this excellent piece of music now that it's finally available on iTunes!

***** star songs: Jibber And Twitch (4:34) Hello Mr.Sparrow (4:35) Ice A Spot And A Dot On The Dog (3:34)

**** star songs: Gena Lollabridgida (3:12) It's A Lovely Day (3:25) A Wooden Fish On Wheels (3:24) Hope Day (6:25) R.E.S. (5:26) To Go Off And Things (2:13)