Strange Boutique
Strange Boutique is the April 1980? debut album of The Monochrome Set, released as DID 4 on the recently created Dindisc imprint of Virgin Records?.
Side A
1. The Monochrome Set (I Presume)
Effectively an abstract "band introduction" song with a gothic flavour. This version has a more progressive structure with an extended intro and outro compared to the original ("The Monochrome Set"), which was released as a single in October 1979?.
- Intro: repetitive "tribal" quasi-goth?/kraut? drumming with animal noises in background
- 0:44: adds quiet, surfy guitar line with dark tonality
- 1:34: upfront guitar, alternating two- and three- interlocking parts
- 2:24: vocals with light delay over the built-up groove, occasional gang interjections of "THE" in the refrain
- 3:14: guitar break with strummed acoustic and two or three electric parts
- 3:38: repeat of vocal section
- 4:35: transition into outro with slightly modified guitar line fading out, then just drums, then just animal noises
The song is lyrically post-psychedelic? with a theatrical British flair, an arch poeticism which colours Bid's work in general, which it effectively introduces through first-person monologue;
I fascinate, infatuate / emphatically
You're dreary; you're base, deary / Your face is weary for me
I'm heaven-sent, so eloquent / and curiously
I entertain your tiny brain / so spuriously
The most obvious genre to assign to this song is post-punk;
- it's repetitive and groove-driven, even drawing on krautrock like early New Musick?
- it has a darker tonality pointing towards but not truly falling under goth
- the album is from 1980, after the cresting of New Wave as a UK pop phenomenon and just as New Pop? and indiepop? are beginning to develop
There are other genres it is reasonable to ascribe to this song, although more obviously debatable;
- it is still recognisably New Wave in its jerky, uptempo rhythms, incorporation of trad R&R influences like surf, and the playful archness
- it can reasonably be described as neo-psychedelic? in the late-New-Wave tradition
- it can reasonably be called an early example of indie? music due to its context, though perhaps more indie rock than indie-pop
2. The Lighter Side of Dating
3. Espresso
(Occasionally misspelled as "Expresso" on reissues.)