|
THE IT GIRL (UK Edition) (May 1996)
Sleeper: The It Girl
Released: 06 May 1996
Miles Mendoza, interactive monkeyRELATED ARTIST LINKS
>> Louise Wener.com
>> Full tracklisting
>> Louise Wener on 6 Music's Essex & Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll
>> Search BBCi for SleeperReleased just a few weeks before England’s near-triumph in Euro ’96 (and my wedding day, fact fans) Sleeper’s second album was bang on time for the height of Brit-Pop and Cool Britannia, and chock-full of tunes-you-could-hum.
It always struck me as rather unfair that Blur, Suede and others survived Brit-Pop intact and still-credible while just one (still pretty-good) album later, Sleeper were almost as vilified as Northern Uproar and Menswe@r. Maybe Louise Wener’s ability to provide a sound bite for any occasion distracted from the quality of the music (and yes there are a couple of duffers on The It Girl) but to me Sleeper’s albums have held up pretty well.
In a year when there was an awful lot of good guitar pop, What Do I Do Now and Sale of the Century still stood out as top-notch sing-along singles, and Wener’s ironic lyrics and breathy vocals were at their absolute best here.
For those, like me, who regret the fact that Wener’s no longer turning out pop gems, there’s some consolation in her current writing projects. Goodnight Steve McQueen is possibly the best ever novel about a guitarist forced to choose between his band and his bird!
