Heart of a Punk Soul of a Rasta

Mirror Mirror
Sons & Daughters

It may seem obtuse in the extreme, especially after eight years and three albums, but on "Mirror Mirror" Sons and Daughters have come of age. Like peering through a glass darkly "Mirror Mirror" is a sinister and macabre offering more in tune with the shuts and passages of Edinburgh than the clubs and art houses of Glasgow.

"Silver Spell" opens the album, searingly stark and sparse and full of unease - it sets the mood. "The Model" next, a Model that has no connection whatsoever with Kraftwerk's The Model. There's no glitz or glamour to be had here just a sad lament as Adele Bethel repeats over & over "Do you think she's happy, really really happy?" Track three is "Breaking Fun" the only real tub thumper on the album and the current 45. David Gow takes the lead here accompanied by a snatch of guitar from Toiler on the Sea by The Stranglers and a goodly dollop of The Kills. The beat is glam but the soul is still fundamentally dark.

It's plain after only three tracks that the choice of JD Twitch as producer was a master stroke - to the same extent that the selection Bernard Butler as producer of "This Gift" was a catastrophic no no. With Butler's over blown contrivance left behind on "Mirror Mirror" we get to reacquaint ourselves with Sons and Daughters "the band". Twitch's production allows each of S&D's constituent parts to be heard clearly and distictly, as was the case on "Love the Cup" and "Repulsion Box". Twitch then augments and embellishes without trampling under foot the S&D sound or destroying the songs.

The heart of "Mirror Mirror" resides at its heart with the three middle tracks: "Orion" and "Don't Look Now" (Du Maurier/Roeg and "Oh, God,…….what a bloody silly way to die…") and "Ink Free". Here S&D dispense with strict four four time and let the songs open up and flow, using Twitch's dance style to power them in very much in the same way Talking Heads and Blondie did 30 years ago. But are you really supposed to be dancing to the Sons and Daughters pulse? I may be wrong but I think not. S&D are very much in the shadows of this dirty disco, with they're backs pressed firmly against the damp painted brick, to step out onto the light of the dance floor would most definitely break the spell.

The quirky buzzing of "Bee Song" and the cloudburst drenched offering "The Beach" complete this "proper" & coherent LP. So be warned downloader's! This is not a vicarious collection of songs, this is an album! Download individual pieces of this particular jigsaw and frankly you'll have missed the picture - a picture seen through a glass darkly - "Mirror Mirror" is MODERN GOTHIC lie back and let it worm its way into your bloodstream. GO HERE.


AND FINALLY: There has always been a lot of nonsense talked about how Sons and Daughters got their name. Some folk cite the Aussie soap, others bang on about one of Robert Zimmerman tunes. But this is all bollo. Sons & Daughters are called Sons and Daughters simply because they are the sons and daughters of the original line up of the Rezillos, everyone knows that...........don't they?