Back in 1988 my old roommate Otto came home one day with a CD by Hothouse Flowers. I don't know where he heard or read about them, but he said it was supposed to be pretty good.
The first two songs were absolutely killer tracks. "I'm Sorry" and "Don't Go." Truly killer tracks. For 1988 this was quite different than most of what I was listening to. The '80s wave had crested and it was full on big hair, tight pants, and gang vocal choruses... this was organic.
I also cannot remember anything aside from the first two songs. I hesitate to say the rest were filler, but I have zero recollection of anything else.
Then, for Father's Day, the kids allowed me to spend a hundred bucks on records, and I found this one. I was pretty stoked. I got a nice pile of stuff that ran the gamut from Linda Ronstadt to Sandford and Townsend (never heard of them, but it was sealed and looked like fun). This was the album I was most excited to hear again. I was very tempted to start on the third track, as side one opens with the two songs I was most familiar with.
I didn't.
Man, those first two cuts are just brilliant. As the album moved into the deeper cuts, the energy didn't subside, the band easily blending traditional elements with a sprinkling of gospel and good old-fashioned rock and roll energy. The first side closes out with "If You Go," a song I'd forgotten, but as it unfolded I was transported back in time and was transfixed. I remembered being moved by this song, and was flabbergasted (come on, how much fun is that word? I may try to squeeze in flummoxed somewhere... be forewarned) that it wasn't more ingrained in my memory.
The second side opens with "The Older We Get," another soaring mid tempo song that gradually builds in energy, then dials it back and quietly ends. As the songs played through the second side, I was able to capture the essence of why the album as a whole didn't stick with me back then. It had nothing to do with the album as much as it did with how I process music. It's like that cutting line from Tom Petty's "Into the Great Wide Open": "Their A&R man said, 'I don't hear a single.'" I am drawn to shiny things, whether I want to be or not. When I listen to an album, I'm subconsciously looking for something to stand out, something to wow my senses. On People the band opened with a one-two combination that quite literally (figuratively, I'm just being dramatic) knocked me off my feet.
The reality is those two songs created momentum that propelled me through the album, but that initial push was so memorable it overshadowed the rest. However, listening to this now - I mean really listening - this is quite extraordinary, and the level of maturity in the songwriting belies the age of the performers. I only say that because the guys in the band are maybe a year or two younger than me, and back then I fancied myself a musician of sorts, but really I was creating refrigerator art... this was art.
This is an album that needs to be played as a piece, as it is a journey. The songs have also aged incredibly well, and the crisp production and instrumentation are organic and feel as fresh now as they did then.
The band was built around vocalist and keyboard player Liam O Maonlai and guitarist Fiachna O Braonain. Peter O'Toole played bass and guitar, and Jerry Fehily was on drums. Leo Barnes played sax.
For me this was really my only exposure to the band until I found a copy of The Platinum Collection (released in 2006), but I honestly didn't spend a lot of time letting that one sink in. I just wanted that one-two punch.
Oh if you go I hope you get there
If you get there I hope you like it.
from "If You Go"
It took me a while, but I got there.
I liked it.
To my kids,thank you this was a perfect Father's Day gift.
The older we get the further we see
The more we mean to each other
The more you mean to me
from "The Older We Get"
If you've been waiting for me to use flummoxed ...
I'm sorry ...
Don't go.
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