Customer Reviews

Where'd You Learn to Kiss That Way?

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These CDs collect a majority of the official output of the Field Mice, though it is by no means 100% complete. The only remaining release that is now in print, it is nonetheless wonderful and a very admirable effort. The Field Mice began as a jangly pop band, and were forever pigeonholed as such. Early forays showed the influence of Nick Drake, the Beatles, and the Go-Betweens. Later, they lamented not being able to break into different territory without their detractors continuing to compare them to their earliest efforts. As time went by, they experimented with electronics, adding a dimension to their music which most closely resembled the Wake (UK) or New Order. Their final album, which also began some forays into shoegazing, was never well-liked by fairweather fans of their earliest material, having undergone a great deal of change in 4 years. It's all well-represented, from the earliest official release, to most of their final (and only) album. Well worth the relatively cheap price when you consider what most of their catalog goes for in auctions these days.

This is a double CD of fragility and beauty which compiles most of this special band's output for the now-defunct Sarah Records.
It begins with the shimmering and elusive 'Five Moments' with dreamy vocals by Annemari,a blueprint for the out-put of Saint Etienne(who covered 'Let's Kiss And Make Up',the original included here).
Largely thereafter vocals are by singer-songwriter,Bobby Wratten and second track 'If You Need Someone' fairly rips along.
'Sensitive' is the nearest this band get to thrash(5 guitar tracks on an 8 track recording!)as it ends with an elongated rock-out.Although that's 'rock-out' in Field Mice terms,obviously...
These are all love songs(how wide a definition can that be?)and each have something to recommend them.There is a bravery to being this open,this...exposed but there will always be a place here(well,for me...) for such emotional nakedness.The love-lorn wistfulness of 'And Before The First Kiss'is a great example.
Later there were excursions into dance music/electronica revealing the band's obsession with Factory Records/New Order.Possibly the best example is 'Missing The Moon',my favourite song on this compilation which is just joyous sequencer-led pop.
'Emma's House' was the first Field Mice release on Sarah and is included here in all its tacky-drum-machine-and-Bobby-fighting-through-the-flu-vocals...genius.
I've changed my mind.'Landmark' is the best song on here...c'mon,it's that sort of record.There is a romantic classicism to the lyrics,"To a decision she's come/She has decided to leave...",and introspection, and emotion which isn't anger.Which is welcome.The killer chorus of,"And were someone to ask me/I'd say it's remarkable/That she stayed so long...",seals the deal.
The packaging is exquisite,you get a biography and a discography and intriquing snippets of lyrics which are like snapshots in time.
The Field Mice were never going to change the world but they can change a little bit of you each time you listen to them.Yearning and heartache can never really go out of fashion and I know it's a cynical world but I like to think we all have those moments of innocence and 'Wow!Where'd you learn to kiss that way!'wonder.I was going to head this review 'Fey Indie Jangling'which is what it is...but it's great and...well,you can tell me when you stopped feeling...and fey indie jangling can sometimes be great.This is.

This will satisfy Sarah Records' orphans in general, and Field Mice's fan who have had to pay high prices for deleted titles.

And the sound? It's all in there. The jangle, the melodies, the tortured lyrics, the drama, plus some nice artwork on the cover and a great booklet with the band's history and more.

I bought this cd set online after reading reviews that cited the Field Mice as the missing link between the Smiths and Belle & Sebastian. Well, not quite. What all three groups have in common is a jangly pop sound and a melancholy, poetic lead singer . But with the Smiths and B&S, the melodies are always solid, the instrumentation always has real direction and heft, and the singing -fey or mopey though it may be - always crackles with strength and smarts. Not so with the Field Mice. Many of the tunes here are flawed by meandering, weak melodies, incredibly wussy lyrics and/or soggy, limp instrumentation. Several lose their jangle in favor of generic synth plinking. And some other pretty good songs never actually make it to the satisfying chorus you can hear them building towards. Don't get me wrong; I think this disk is worth picking up for the good tunes, which add some excellent melancholy jangle-pop tunes to the canon - "Emma's House", "Clearer", "Fabulous Friend", "Coach Station Reunion", "So Said Kay", "Canada", "September's Not So Far Away" - but be warned that these very good songs are outnumbered by bad ones.

Did someone say my lights are on? Car or porch, when The Field Mice take the stage, then everyone this side of the Mississippi runs for cover. No, you will not find "Bum Rush The Show" on this compilation or even "Christopher Tracy's Parade" -- but what you will find are two discs that inspired Sir Gregory Hines in "TAP!" The Colonel in "Farakhhan!" and that blew Gary Coleman's melon twice it's normal size, sending The Shadowlord into jangle pop heaven. Field Mice? Indeed.

Don't buy this CD if you're looking for the Field Mice from California! They were big in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 80's. These guys are from England! Who would've thought there could be two groups called "The Field Mice"? I guess I need to read the album descriptions more carefully... These guys were a little too whiny for me!