Atherstone News and Herald

3 May 1985

Review

Jewels in the Candy

Strawberry Switchblade
Strawberry Switchblade
(Korova)

When I first heard this debut album, my initial impression was that the last thing we could possibly want in these troubled times was another Bananarama. For on just one playing, this LP struck me as a pleasant but somewhat tame collection of candy-floss pop.

Well subsequent playings have convinced me that some part of it IS tame candy-floss – but it is the other bits that make it so intriguing.

Numbers such as ‘10 James Orr Street’ and ‘Deep Water’ have a lot of punch to them, but one song above all stands out as one of the very best I have ever heard from a female outfit ever.

Melody

Tucked at the end of the album, ‘Being Cold’ is a tour-de-force of a song which is worth buying the whole album for. It has a nagging beautiful melody which is just so insistent on the mind that you can’t help but embrace it.

It is the sort of song that could bring a robot to tears and the sort that could bring Strawberry Switchblade some of the credibility they now unfortunately lack.

S.H.