Sheriff Jack - Let's Be Nonchalant ep (1986, Midnight)

This is one of the more interesting UK retro discoveries I've come across in the past few months.  Sheriff Jack was the brainchild of Lewis Taylor, who eventually parlayed his avant-leaning proclivities into a solo career in the '90s and '00s.  The Let's Be Nonchalant ep, however isn't particularly madcap, and in fact it's wondrous opening salvo “Buy Everybody a Cake” bursts out of the starting gate, fusing the best parts of the Soft Boys and the Records into a dazzling jangle-rock melange.  From what I've been able to discern in my online findings, Taylor has frequently been likened to Robyn Hitchcock.  "We're Gonna Be in Love" is far less overwhelming, but of the three remaining tracks here, it's the closest in ethos to "Cake."  The trumped-up trumpets that dominate "Whatcha Gonna Do?" is anathema to my brass-phobic ears, but "Buttered Slice of Democracy" compensates with a rhythmic aplomb that faintly touches on what Gang of Four and APB were trying to accomplish just a few years prior.  Two albums followed Nonchalant, Laugh Yourself Awake in 1986, and a year later, the facetiously dubbed What Lovely Melodies!   Evidently, Laugh Yourself... offers a rendition of Big Star's "Back of a Car."  Both albums are available from Amazon downloads, Emusic, and one would assume iTunes.  

01. Buy Everybody a Cake
02. We're Gonna Be in Love
03. Whatcha Gonna Do?
04. Buttered Slice of Democracy


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