BMX Bandits Serious Drugs Creation Years Anthology

BMX Bandits Serious Drugs Creation Years Anthology

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In 1993, Scottish indie pop legends the BMX Bandits landed on Creation Records, staying long enough to release three albums and many singles before leaving in 1996. As evidenced by their fine 1991 Vinyl Japan release, Star Wars, they had moved away from the indie pop sound of their early singles on 53rd & Third and 1990's excellent C86 album on the tiny Click label. Perhaps due to the presence (and ongoing influence after their departure in 1994) of Teenage Fanclub mainstay Norman Blake and future Superstar maestro Joe McAlinden, the group now had a full-bodied sound full-up with jangling guitars, soaring vocal harmonies, and wonderful chamber pop embellishments. Add to that the inimitable vocal stylings of Duglas Stewart and the fine songwriting by Stewart and longtime Bandit Francis MacDonald, and you have one of the great, if underrated, guitar pop bands of the '90s. Indeed, their first single for Creation, "Serious Drugs," is one of the great pop singles of the era if not all time. This 2005 collection on Sanctuary, also titled Serious Drugs, rounds up songs from their three albums, 1993's Life Goes On, 1995's Gettin' Dirty, and 1996's Theme Park, along with various singles, an unreleased version of a tune ("Scar"), and "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" from a 1998 tribute to Burt Bacharach. The songs are very well chosen, picking up some of their chiming ballads like the aforementioned classic "Serious Drugs," the ravishing "It Hasn't Ended" (with Joe McAlinden on vocals), "Little Hands," and "Girl Next Door," as well as lighthearted romps like the silly "Kylie's Got a Crush on Us," a super-relaxed cover of Jonathan Richman's "That Summer Feeling" (with legendary soul songwriter Dan Penn taking a verse), and the rocking "(We're Gonna) Shake You Down." Add to that uniquely BMX moments, like the cover of Beat Happening's "Cast a Shadow," "Space Girl," and "One Big Heart," where Stewart's big-hearted, goofy, and 100 percent endearing persona runs mild. Taken together, it is a wonderful portrait of a band that never really got its due -- who knows, maybe this collection will bring the BMX Bandits some long-overdue recognition. Probably not, though. Music this intimate, relaxed, and private almost never does. Oh well -- it can stay a wonderful secret, a sacred text for those lucky in-the-know souls.

BMX Bandits Gettin' Dirty

BMX Bandits Gettin' Dirty

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The fourth BMX Bandits album, 1995's Gettin' Dirty, breaks with tradition by finally establishing a fully fledged band who contributes to every track instead of gathering a nebulous collection of friends surrounding singer/songwriter Duglas T. Stewart. As a result, Gettin' Dirty is the first BMX Bandits album with a consistent sound and feel. Stewart and guitarist Francis McDonald (moonlighting from his regular gig in Teenage Fanclub) wrote most of the songs together, with Stewart's lyrics complemented nicely by McDonald's Big Star-derived melodic sense. While none of the tunes are as completely swell as "Serious Drugs," the highlight from the previous year's Life Goes On, there's also a refreshing lack of the half-baked filler that marred previous BMX Bandits efforts. Highlights include the title track, a downright sweet reverie about the joys of showering with your significant other, and the Phil Spector homage "Come out of the Shadows," but Teenage Fanclub fans will be most intrigued by the McDonald-penned "No Future," which is a companion song to "Tears" from Teenage Fanclub's Grand Prix: the two songs are musically identical, with two sets of lyrics written from opposing viewpoints of the same romantic situation, an interesting conceit that also works as a pair of great pop songs.