Originally relased by much-maligned indie label Sarah Records in 1990, THE FIELD MICE'S second album "Skywriting" now comes in a deluxe 2CD package, with the ever-diligent LTM Records fleshing it out generously by rounding up the attendant EPS the band released during the same 12-month span.
"Skywriting" featured the band's core duo of Bobby Wratten and Michael Hiscock, with the addition of guitarist Harvey Williams, who would stay onboard when the Field Mice expanded to a quintet to make their third and last album "For Keeps" during 1991. Once again, the album's six songs refer to both the band's classic, jangly guitar pop roots and also takes on board the (then current) feverish developments in the indie-dance scene that found The Field Mice's spiritual contemporaries like (oh yes) Primal Scream aiming for the dancefloor with their wares.
And nowhere more so than on the songs that bookend "Skywriting." Lengthy opener "Triangle" is positively drenched in the Ibiza-soaked vibes that informed New Order's then-recent "Technique" album and feature Wratten's languid, semi-stoned vocals. It stops short of crying "Acieed!" as such, but is a forgotten sun-kissed classic of the time. The closing "Humblebee", meanwhile, is the one where your reviewer parts company with Wratten and Hiscock for once. Yes, its' "Chocolate Love Sex" mantra/ refrain may have been the slogan that launched several thousand T-shirts, but its' avant-garde montage still sound suspiciously like a pisstake to these ears. Bah humbug, basically.
Mostly, though, "Skywriting" concentrates on what The Field Mice did best: i.e breezy, post-C86 guitar pop with dreamy harmonies and lovelorn-as-hell lyrics. indeed, tracks like "It Isn't Forever" and "Clearer" are typical of what Wratten and Hiscock were about. The former starts with Wratten pouring his heart out ("I long to hold you, I long to kiss you") before finally going for a surprise noise burn, while the band's producer Ian Catt adds some nice fanfare horn-keyboard motifs to make "Clearer" really stand out. Arguably best of all, though, is "Canada", which initially seems like a bit of a departure, recalling the jaunty country-rock of The Byrds' "Mr.Spaceman" before morphing into an oddly sublime love song in its' own right. "He doesn't love you, I'm the one who loves you, but he's the one you love," bemoans a smitten Wratten, perfectly describing the Catch 22 of the bizarre love triangle that's the song's lyrical cornerstone.
The remainder of CD1 and all of the generous second CD concentrate on the band's EPS, "So Said Kay" and "The Autumn Store" (parts one and two), plus a few choice out-takes and rarities. Typically, these are often as good as anything from the band's officially-sourced albums. The "So Said Kay" EP is especially good, featuring treasures aplenty. It opens with "Landmark," which was featured on the recent "Rough Trade Indiepop 1" compilation and remains lovely pastoral pop that drifts by longingly to this day, while "Quicksilver" is arguably the last word in The Field Mice's lovelorn pop chase. "Deeply I would love to see you again," repeats Wratten, almost choking the words out of himself. It's truly heavenly stuff, all told.
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The gear on CD2 has its' moments as well. "If You Need Someone" (from "The Autumn Store Pt.1") is breezy and romantic and the start of the band's bright, chiming paper chase that would lead them to songs like "September's Not So Far Away" and "Coach Station Reunion", while - at an intriguing tangent - "Bleak" is a piano-fuelled portrait of darkness and isolation that the uninitiated would never expect from The Field Mice. Elsewhere, Wratten, Hiscock and Williams take on - of all people - John Cooper Clarke's songbook, with a likeably lugubrious version of "A Heart Disease Called Love" (thankfully Bobby doesn't try to imitate the Salford bard) and if that doesn't faze you, then try the closing 10 minutes of "Other Galaxies" where future Field Mice Annemari Davies and Mark Dobson get on board and lever up a trembly, acid-tremelo workout with dubby basslines and rolling drums that's a clear precursor of "For Keeps"s "Freezing Point."
This expansive, deluxe edition of "Skywriting" once again enforces the fact that South London duo Bobby Wratten and Michael Hiscock were horribly undervalued during their brief, but industrious lifetime as The Field Mice. That their small, but often perfectly-formed back catalogue has had a second chance on CD is wholly just and even beastly previous naysayers like your reviewer can now appreciate them for the cool indie songsmiths they surely were. There is a God sometimes, it seems.
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