It seems fitting that in the year of the Queen’s 90th birthday, a band named after Her Majesty’s favourite pets should have a full collection released.
Famous for the ballad compilation staple Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime, this new collection uses that title unashamedly as a reminder of their big hit. It’s a shame in a way, because there is more here that’s worthy of revisiting than you might expect.
Formed in the late seventies by Andy Davis and James Warren, who were both formerly in the band Stackridge, The Korgis epitomise an era of pop going through experimentation and transformation. Coming after punk’s loud burst and before the New Romantic and subsequently self-indulgent early 80s pop, they sometimes sound like a band confused by the times.
It’s scary to think that their first album in 1979, comes just ten years after the Beatles wrapped it up and thus it would be like a band now looking at the Arctic Monkeys and using them as a template. At times they are more George Harrison than Paul McCartney, particularly on the ‘other hit’ If I Had You, a delightful sweeping ballad which is probably their best song. Elsewhere though, there are New Wave touches on Chinese Girl and Art School Annexe, which sounds like something Trevor Horn might have produced.
Of the 35 tracks included here, most bizarre is the instrumental Rovers Return, which apparently started as a full song before being left without lyrics. There are dogs barking and it has a fun fair feel. It sounds more like the theme tune to a bad 80s quiz show than anything else. There is also a remix of Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime, which to be honest should have been left alone by the 90s producers! As ever this is a thorough collection, which captures their peak period in full. The band did reform later with little success so this is really all you need to know to explore the world of The Korgis.
by David Spencer, Music-News.com
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