Associates
Fourth Drawer Down
Label ©  V2
Release Year  1980
Length  1:04:27
Genre  Alternative Pop
Personal Star Rating [1-5]  
  Ref#  A-0058
Bitrate  (various) Kbps
  Other  
  Info  
    Track Listing:
      1.  
      White Car In Germany  
       5:31  
      2.  
      A Girl Named Property  
       4:58  
      3.  
      Kitchen Person  
       4:53  
      4.  
      Q Quarters  
       4:57  
      5.  
      Tell Me Easter's On Friday  
       4:32  
      6.  
      The Associate  
       4:59  
      7.  
      Message Oblique Speech  
       5:35  
      8.  
      An Even Whiter Car  
       4:47  
      9.  
      Fearless (It Takes A Full Moon)  
       3:38  
      10.  
      Point Si  
       5:16  
      11.  
      Straw Towels  
       5:16  
      12.  
      Kissed  
       6:12  
      13.  
      Blue Soap  
       3:53  
    Additional info: | top
      The stories behind the four singles which went to make up the Associates' second album are legion. How Billy MacKenzie sang through a vacuum cleaner tube on "Kitchen Person"; how cups were stuck on heads to help implement "The Associate"; the phlegmy coughs which doubled as backing vocals on "Q Quarters". Listening to Fourth Drawer Down now, it seems incredible Rankine and MacKenzie were allowed to get away with so much. But thank goodness they were. MacKenzie's typically overwrought falsetto still carries considerable emotional clout when matched to his partner's dislocated funk and the dark, skewed electronica. The strangeness doesn't stop there, either; among the five bonus tracks included is the song ("Straw Towels") which resulted in the Associates being hospitalised, suffering from drug-induced panic attacks. Plus, there's the rather strange "Blue Soap"--recorded in one take by Billy while he was in the bath listening to a tape of "Kitchen Person". They really don't make them like this any more. --Jerry Thackray
    Links/Resources | top