So the first thing you hear are steady percussive guitar, xylophone and horns. Then the smooth, deep voice of chief songwriter Nick Heyward. This sounded like nothing else back in 1982 and certainly like nothing that\u2019s put on the radio these days. It\u2019s a perfect moment captured in a time capsule. It was also Haircut One Hundred\u2019s biggest, and arguably (especially in the States), only hit. \u201cLove Plus One\u201d is followed up by its equally catchy and impossibly speedy B-side \u201cFavourite Shirts,\u201d though the UK loved the band so much that it too became a top five hit.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a sunny, tropical feel to much of Haircut 100\u2019s debut album, Pelican West<\/i>. This is in stark contrast to the stuffy cable knit sweaters and dress pants the six male members are wearing on the sleeve and video clips. Whatever the season, this is likely as New Wave as Arista would ever allow itself to be. The Calypso music of songs such as \u201cLemon Firebrigade\u201d may not be to everyone\u2019s liking, but at least it was different. The problem going forward as a viable band with staying power was a distinct lack of musical variation. They settled on one formula and in the process, backed themselves into a corner. Plus, there were SO many UK bands vying for supremacy in the \u201880s that it eventually became the survival of the fittest.<\/p>\n
Consider Haircut One Hundred the six boys you wouldn\u2019t be afraid to take home to mum. Gays and girls both adored these blokes in equal measure. Who knew sexual fantasies would arise from men fully clothed? It\u2019s an ironic and clever notion the image makers clearly latched onto early on in marketing the band for MTV. And they brought highly proficient jazz music into the mix too, proving that they weren\u2019t just pretty faces. Somebody like Sade would appreciate what Haircut One Hundred tried to do musically, though I\u2019ve always maintained that Sade could\u2019ve at least attempted<\/i> upbeat material such as this. At any rate, one listen to \u201cKingsize\u201d should silence any doubting Thomases who felt Haircut One Hundred couldn\u2019t possibly play.<\/p>\n
Another highlight on Pelican West<\/i> is the song with the title that says it all, \u201cFantastic Day.\u201d It almost sounds like a TV theme, with a hook so big it\u2019s a mystery why it was never released as a single in the States. We Americans give up on and discard things so quickly. We\u2019re the most fickle country in the world and I\u2019m not ashamed to say that either. It\u2019s almost as if we\u2019re all trained to say \u201cnext\u201d and \u201cno\u201d all the time! As a music critic myself, I strive to be fair and objective. Even listening to this album, I had an internal struggle going on, \u201cDo I like it\u2026or don\u2019t I?\u201d It\u2019s interesting revisiting these gems from the past. Some have gotten better with age, while others clearly have rotted on the vine. Haircut One Hundred is one of those rare acts who find themselves in a perpetual state of purgatory.<\/p>\n
The horns take center stage on \u201cBaked Bean,\u201d but I can\u2019t get past that ridiculous title. Then, \u201cSnow Girl\u201d is a snow BALL you\u2019d rather throw far, far away. At least they finish strong with the surprisingly funky \u201cLove\u2019s Got Me In Triangles\u201d and the ultimate closer \u201cCalling Captain Autumn,\u201d clearly a reference to the fallen leaves in the cover photo. If mid-tempo jazzy pop is your thing, then you\u2019ll love Pelican West<\/i>. For me, though, the jury is still out after all these years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":32101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9484],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-43848","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-haircut-one-hundred","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43848"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}