Repomen - Occasional Sensations

For fans of:
The Go Betweens, The Cure, The Buzzcocks, The Violent Femmes, The Undertones.

“The first Sheffield band since Pulp to release a best of”. Now that would be a tag line for the aptly
named “Occasional sensations”, a “best of” long player from Sheffield’s post-new wave four piece,
wouldn’t it? But hang on, what’s a relatively unknown band doing releasing a “Best of” album? Who
the hell do they think they are? Good question. Well, you’ve kept chipping away at the rock face of
independent music for over ten years, recording 10 EPs and an album in the process, so why not?
Why not indeed. So hear it is. Twenty tracks in chronological order spanning the band’s 11 year
recording career.

And how the years have flown by. The innocence that shines, jangling through the lovelorn hope of LP
opener ‘She’s In Love’, crushed at the last – “I love her, she’s in love….with you”; and later, on ‘Lauren
Bacall’, the arrogance, the stupid pride, the pitiful fall; and finally, the stark desolation of ‘Violet’ -
“when we were dancing, were we happy then?” Yes, there’s love songs here, but no boy meets girl, no
happy endings. There’s hopes and desires, but little dreaming. There’s much mortality, but it’s far from
morbid - from the dying man of ‘Tonight’ seeking closure for himself but new life for his loved ones,
to the amigos of ‘Flicker’, risking death traveling north out of Mexico, watched with disinterest by the
border guards - there’s no promise in that land. We shine our small torch on a big wide world, maybe
somewhere it helps.

It’s guitar (Ric), bass (Si) and drums (James), not forgetting Denzil on vocals, but the subtleties are
there, layered parts and exotic instruments, a few details here and there; something more than just
the surface. You, dear listener, deserve the attention. All to no avail of sales. Ah, but what is success
anyway?

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