I won't wax poetic about Tracey Thorn's pre-Everything But The Girl years as part of lo-fi gal group Marine Girls. Here's a quick primer: The band formed in 1980, and they released a couple of charming albums often compared to the work of the girls from the Raincoats. The songs on their two full-length albums, 'Beach Party' (1982) and 'Lazy Ways' (1983), seem simplistic and understated, and most of the tunes were written and performed on guitar by Thorn. If, like me, you think Thorn has the most amazing pipes in music, you might be surprised to learn while in Marine Girls she shared lead-vocal duties. Thorn is known to be quite shy, and I imagine that may have played at least a small part in what may seem like a head scratcher to EBTG fans.
There probably aren't too many of you out there that consider Marine Girls the highlight of Thorn's career. As you would expect, this is the work of a young talent still trying to find herself. She was, after all, a teenager (and a very young twentysomething) then. Still, and I don't think this is mere hindsight, you can already hear a certain sparkle... especially that voice!
I was pleasantly surprised to find you can still get 'Beach Party' and 'Lazy Ways' as a
CD twofer via Cherry Red. Here are a couple of songs to whet your whistle.
Marine Girls - Love to Know (mp3)
from 'Lazy Ways'
Marine Girls - Honey (mp3)
from 'Beach Party'
Next Up: The solo albums of Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt
1 comment:
Marine Girls were engaging. I definitely get The Raincoats comparison. Love these records.
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