Finley Quaye - Vanguard

Now that the snow is here (again), it reminded me of this album, which I "dug out" (read: scrolled to with iPod wheel) and listened to in its entirety while trying to get out of Blanchardstown shopping centre. Why does it remind me of snow? When I first got it (in late 2000) I went snowboarding in Lake Tahoe (cool) and it was the soundtrack of that trip. So for me, snow = Vanguard.

Bit of background first. FQ first came on the scene in '97 with the album Maverick A Strike, and its lead single "Sunday Shining", which was a hit single. As were the follow ups, "Even After All" and "Your Love Gets Sweeter": Nice, laid-back reggae for the summer. Poised for a big career, he didn't capitalise on the opportunity (and had some personal problems) and by the time Vanguard appeared in '00, he had lost his momentum. Bad reviews didn't help, and lead single "Spiritualized" only went to number 26 on the UK charts. The album itself only went to number 35 (Maverick A Strike went to number 3). 

This album is under-appreciated, as it has some fine moments, and is more consistently enjoyable than his debut. It opens well with "Broadcast" and "Spiritualized"  (a track which manages to rock and be laid back at the same time), and the trio of early tracks ("Burning", "Everybody Knows", and "Feeling Blue") are as commercial as anything he's done before. There's the right amount of nice electronic touches ("The Emperor", "Chad Valley"), and also one of his best songs, certainly my favourite, "When I Burn Off Into The Distance" (video link below). This is a fantastic track, a true hidden gem that has swagger and charm at the same time.

Where the album does go slightly off the rails are around the lyrics (which are mostly barmy), and a couple of sketchy tracks (like "British Air Rage") but it all comes back together with the plaintive "Hey Now". 

There, see I've just described the whole album from memory. You can't do that with the first one. That album was single / single / filler / filler / filler / single / filler etc. This album has an eclectic mix of songs and each one has its own personality.

For some reason I never explored any further FQ albums, but will now. There's two more I think so I'll probably blog about them once I've had a listen! For now though I'd recommend this, and check out the video link below.