A mere 33 years after Volume 1 comes 16 "unreleased and rare" tracks recorded between 1978 and 1991 that were either discarded or simply forgotten about.
On the face of it, this long delay doesn't bode well but most of the songs have stood the test of time and singer Bid (Ganesh Seshadri) is in fine voice throughout. It all suggests that The Monochrome Set's bullshit detector was malfunctioning at the time they were recorded.
Off-cuts like these can provide a more accurate barometer of where a band is at than officially sanctioned releases. Not having followed the band's career so closely I am not best placed to judge the album in such terms but it strikes me that many of the tracks do have a enduring freshness. For instance, the opening tune,Something About You, sounds like a heady mix of The Monkees and Orange Juice.
The earliest songs are I Wanna Be Your Man and Fly Me To The Moon from a 1978 demo recorded soon after the band signed for Rough Trade. The former is not the Velvet Underground song ("It's not about sex") and the latter is not a Sinatra cover although, paradoxically, elements of both those artists do creep in.
Cilla Black from mid 1983, has nothing to do with the entertainer of the same name but is, instead, a blatantly libidinous song set to the tune of The Doors' Love Her Madly that now sounds somewhat awkwardly like a pedophile's charter : "I'm looking for a little girl, who's not so pretty not so plain"
The big 'we are quintessential Brits' number is Whoops! What A Palaver and an illustration of how the band like to play the faux-naive card. Reach For Your Gun is another of a number of tunes that affect a similarly fey outlook on the world; "Pussy, pussy where has your tail gone?" indeed!
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In this same cabaret vein, Love and Stories From The Book Of Love are full of irony on amorous matters so it's something of a relief when the fake sexual coyness is cast aside for I Want Your Skin ( "I've been courting pretty women ever since I was 9, I love them all for one thing"). This was intended to be central track from the 1990's album Dante's Casino but subsequently ditched. Bella Morte did make it to that album albeit with a different vocal melody.
Inevitably, there are some duds here. Wisteria is a piece of druggy psychedelic nonsense that should have been left in the cutting room floor and Swing tries a little too hard to be playful in an adult way.
But the collection ends strongly with Black Are The Flowers and Jack, rough early versions of songs from 1991 that appear in a more polished form on 'Jack', the album.
All in all, this album has something to satisfy both diehard fans and newbies.
Roll on volume 3!
The Monochrome Set's website
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