- Label: 'Think Like A Key Music'
- Genre: 'Sixties'
- Release Date: '23.5.25.'- Catalogue No: 'TLAK1196'
Our Rating:
St Johns Wood Affair is the second album by Nirvana UK offshoot St Johns Wood Affair who are led by Keith Smart and are Carlton Jarvis, Ann Whittet, Adrian Hillier and Francine and produced by Keith Smart who makes sure this sounds like they have never heard a record recorded after 1974.
The Album opens with Centre Of The Universe that wants to be a Revolver outtake, cool as can be psychedelic power pop, for convincing someone that they will be the Centre Of The Universe rather than just another fling, so make those stars align and give in.
Follow Me To The Stars takes a colossal chugging riff and makes clear its time to take off and get higher than you've ever been before, you travel the spaceways with Keith and the boys and girls, going from one great organ part to the next, it will help to drop acid before hearing this tune.
Can You See Me? How can you not, you can see for miles right? This certainly has a love of the Who mixed with the Electric Boys Mary In The Mystery World.
Hoping On The Train (In Vain) they are walking up and down a train, looking for some beauty they saw once before and hope to see again, so they can drool over her, hoping for a 3 minute love affair, this has a hazy laid back feel, even when it sounds like there is a helicopter hovering above the train, it is looking for a stalker?
Magic Carpet Ride is psychedelic reflections for that Magic Carpet Ride you feel like your on, having popped something magical, hoping to get higher than they've ever been before.
Memory Lane is where this band are clearly stuck, they wish it was still the 60's or early 70's, it's there happy place, this song is rooted in that past they love so much, almost expect a power cut in the middle of this, or the echoes of another IRA bomb going off, so sit on your bean bag, suck on some spangles and transport yourself to that magical childhood place.
Secret Garden is that place you can go and meet up with someone you perhaps shouldn't, they warn you to be careful, I wonder if it has a cottage hidden within, where all the local deviants hang out, the kaleidoscopic dreams have shifted and shattered the dreams they had, they realize just how seedy this Secret Garden can be, no matter how pretty the music, hiding the darkness, they make the warning clear.
TV Eyes takes us on a walk down the Kings Road in the years when the Chelsea Drugstore and Great Gear Market were in full flow, Shoe shops had moon landing crater ceilings, set against a driving riff perfect for cruising on a Saturday afternoon, having lunch in the Chelsea Kitchen and mooching about, rather than just staring at a TV Screen.
The album closes with Dream Farm that sounds like an idea William Burroughs came up with, I hope this has lots of tape splices in it, this is the most acoustic folky song on the album, they hope you've worked it out tonight and chosen the correct dream for the trip you want to take, beyond the mundane reality of normal existence. They are just one Snowy White style guitar solo from Nirvana.
Find out more at https://www.thinklikeakey.com/release/496736-st-johns-wood-affair-st-johns-wood-affair-2????https://www.stjohnswoodaffair.co.uk/????https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsWoodAffair
