Something's changed

The Mockers - Swear It's True (1984) ***

Nominated by: K Simms

Music club: Wander to Wozza's

Playlist addition:  After The Rain

Reporter: What are you? A mod or a rocker?

Ringo: Er, I'm a mocker.

From that snippet of Hard Day's Night dialogue comes a name for Nu Zild's teen pop sensations of the early eighties. Great choice!

Back in 1983-84 Andrew Fagan and his band of school mates were quite something. 

I loved their pop smarts on 1983's My Girl Thinks She's Cleopatra and 1984's Forever Tuesday Morning. But I guess I instinctively knew they were more of a singles proposition than an album band because I didn't follow through and buy Swear It's True at the time.

Plus, I was a tad busy: 1983-1984 was a period of transition for me, literally - moving from the Windmill Rd flat in Auckland to New Plymouth for my first teaching job, meeting Jacky, getting married, starting a family - all in that order and all before 1984 was done.

It was a great year for music, 1984. Among what I bought that year: REM - Reckoning; Prince - Purple Rain; Stevie Ray Vaughn - Couldn't Stand The Weather; Springsteen - Born In The USA; U2 - Unforgettable Fire; Van Halen - 1984; Big Country - Steeltown; Brewing Up With Billy Bragg; The Alarm - Declaration; Tom Verlaine - Cover; Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Welcome To The Pleasure Dome; Alison Moyet - Alf.

So The Mocker's debut album passed me by.

Fast forward forty years! And Kevy picks The Mockers for his latest poptastic delight from Nu Zild.

I found an album of two extremes - some good A songs, delivered with youthful exuberance and pop smarts, but other B songs are of uneven quality - either in composition or delivery.

Clearly, the songs I had heard before were still bright and shiny in the nostalgic morning light: Cleopatra; After The Rain (the B-side to Cleopatra); Forever Tuesday Morning. 

Album opener, Woke Up Today, is also a step in the right bubblegum pop direction (I'm a big fan of bubblegum pop). 

But between Cleopatra and Alvison Park we hit a rough patch of lesser material where we find either some sparse instrumentation, blander arrangements (Good Old Days),  banal lyrics (Swear It's True, You Only Live Once), attempts to do an ABBA treatment (Destiny), overreliance on synths (You Only Live Once) or songs where Andrew Fagan's singing lacks quality (Ancient Times/Good Old Days are shockers). 

Swear it's True (the song) is interesting. Fagan, I think, would maybe consider himself a bit of a poet but look at those rhymes: you/do/glue/true are repeated over and over and over.

Yes, I hear you - The Beatles' Yes It Is is not Lennon's greatest  lyric either (blue/you/true again), but he's John Lennon inne.

The album does end on some stronger songs - Alvison Park onwards. That one is not too inventive musically but the lyrics are more interesting and reveal a glimpse at some depth.

After The Rain is my favourite track. Interesting arrangement, interesting lyrics, good performance by Fagan, and a successful attempt at a Cure type delivery. When I bought the Cleopatra single I played the B side a whole lot. I'm not averse to synths as such (Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson, Vangelis, Eno, Patrick Moraz etc etc) and they work well on this track.

Nothing is terrible (okay - maybe Good Old Days), but too many songs smack of album filler-hood.  Maybe it was a rush job to cash in on the singles? 

My initial eighties impression is therefore backed up  - a solid singles band, but not really having the ability to extend quality over a whole album.

For me The Mockers are like NZ's Herman's Hermits - charismatic front man, some great (albeit slight) singles and a lot of filler.