Sweet Spot Innuendo, what never.....! I thought it was all about cricket bats. OK its a simple song and a dip in quality from the opening tunes but it has its place in the order and keeps the pace of the album nicely. The one highlight is Cathy's first vocal with Neil. I really like Cathy's backing vocals and her voice is so distinctive. Really adds to whatever she appears on. 3/5
Only a single entendre really, isn't it? Is it disappointing that they didn't even try to make the cricket metaphor work, or amusing? To be honest this is a rare one where I'd never thought about the lyrics until today. I like it fine though, a groovy, muscular palate cleanser, and yes, that's a fun live version. Another one where their enthusiasm is worth a lot. 3.5/5 Thanks to @lazzaa and @DaniMoonstar for the cricket glossaries, please keep them coming. I followed it for a while but don't know the history. It would be good to dig out some of the more obscure references (eg I guess "the passion of '32" is a reference to the Indian cricket team's first test match in 1932?). Forgot to mention 'Ripping Yarns' yesterday, Terry Jones & Michael Palin's post-Monty Python series which conjures up some of the same nostalgia. Nice interview here where Thomas and Neil talk about doing a little research for the album ("but songs like Sweet Spot, well, that's about something besides cricket"), and Thomas accurately predicts the Ashes 2009 result! (Although Neil and Thomas mention ELO a lot, I keep thinking about 10cc - the sly, sometimes ribald humour, dry production, arty, angular songs.)
Noooo surely this is as double as entendres come? I mean, I didn’t read an English degree so perhaps I’m completely wrong, but… 'Hitting the sweet spot' is a legitimate cricketing expression; often a batsman does so on their knees. The song is in an album about cricket rather than an album about sex, so surely 'face value' here is that it's a song about timing and placing your shots well. Excepting the fact that it’s unclear to whom the song is addressed (could be the spectators, could be the protagonist's captain, could be sarcastically directed at the bowler), the lines do work - in fact "My aim is true, gonna hit you out of sight" makes a lot more sense re cricket than it does re love-making, unless I’ve been doing everything horribly wrong…
Gentleman and Players A nice track with a pleasant mix of instruments. If that's a harpsichord, it adds an effective light touch. And I never mind the intrusion of a gentle flute to add some color. 3.6/5 The Sweet Spot Just when I thought I had a handle on a cricket concept (the "Sweet Spot", which is also found in baseball bats), the song is highjacked by a not-so-disguised alternate meaning! (Maybe next time then). This is the first track I really hear the ELO influence. While that's a sound I like well enough, I'm only moderately interested in this one. Mainly, it's difficult warming to a voice other than Neil's, especially given the focus of this thread. Plus, the song is a plain rocker that lacks some of the musical subtlety I appreciate from Neil. But I do like the Neil and Cathy backing vocals. 2.4/5
Still on an island, still catching up: Though I can see the appeal of Duke Special and he's a talented musician and performer, I'm afraid I don't find him as special as others here. I agree with @LivingForever and @christian42 that the original song is by far the most successful. The traditional song is indeed too slow and ponderous. I love the song in its original Gloria Jones version as well as the iconic Soft Cell cover, but this one is no fun because it lacks the other versions' pizazz and is also too slow and ponderous. If we were to rate these, this would come close to my scores, certainly regarding the order of preference as I also like the "Tainted Love" cover the least but the original song the most. Thanks, that was a fun show. Neil's cover of "No Cover Up" is the winner here, I think it's better than Duke Special's Later performance posted earlier, but it also shows that it's a good song to begin with. Kudos to Duke Special for picking a Regeneration track with "Mastermind" and not ruining it. It's actually a very good performance. I just noticed the line "Every girl weeps like the willow" includes the name of Neil's daughter, who was born in the same year. A fitting cover of "The Winner Takes It All" rounds off the daft duelling concept of the show nicely. I actually prefer Duke Special's voice here as Neil goes into show-off crooner mode. Maybe I will check out Duke Special's early material after all. Tinsel And Marzipan This sounds like an attempt at a rockier Christmas song in the vein of Slade's classic, but it never quite gets going and lacks the necessary energy to sound equally celebratory. That said, I like the sentiment of the song. I don't know which version I prefer, but agree with you that this collaboration suits Neil well.
Will come back with scores later, but today’s song is: Jiggery Pokery Probably the most Neil-y song on the album, and presumably telling the story of a very specific cricket match (I’m sure one of our more cricket-knowledgeable members will be along to explain very shortly!) Oh, actually - this YouTube video of the song contains some of the actual footage of the match in question!
And here’s Neil and Thomas singing it in an acoustic instore performance from 2013 - a great watch despite Neil’s usual lyric-forgetting
Ha ha, fair enough, my meagre experience of cricketing tactics failed me. I knew about the sweet spot, it was being down on the knees I was most skeptical about - but I bow to your (and their) superior knowledge!
Jiggery Pokery I was thinking about this yesterday - I'm not quite sure. I think it's the song that most closely matches what people expect Neil to be, and it'd certainly be the one most easily identified by those why only know the hits, but I don't know that it's any more 'Neil' than Gentlemen and Players, or The Nightwatchman, say. Certainly there are come Hannon trademarks - the humour and the delivery are very him, albeit at his most Gilbert and Sullivan-esque. I don't know anything about the moment it centres on, but I admire the way he's stretched what must have been such a brief moment into a whole song. He performs it well, the lyrics raise a smile (or several), and the final run of massed voices on the baboon line is a good touch. I probably admire the construct more than I actually enjoy the song, but it's an inevitable centre-point of the album as a whole, so 3.5/5 from me.
What? Where's "Tragalgar", my final substitution for the middle stretch of the Victory album? Thank you! "Trafalgar" should have deserved a full day of discussion. This is one of the highlights from the box set and upon researching its origin I was also disappointed that I couldn't watch the TV programme it came from. Also, there's at least one other nod to ABBA in "Trafalgar" with the lyrical reference to "I'm A Marionette". Ah, you beat me to it with the "I'm A Marionette" reference, but then I'm still four days behind. Luckily, I love "Trafalgar" unconditionally, my favourite part being the main section. Amazing, I'm so looking forward to watching this. I hope the link's still active next week as I'm not allowed to download stuff like this via the WLAN connection of my holiday apartment. Like @christian42, I also have to repudiate @LivingForever's comment. And I agree with @Dalav that this is a prime example of a fun and silly track being as or even more successful than some of TDC's more serious stuff. I don't find this difficult to score at all and love to listen to it as a standalone track and as part of my personal Victory tracklist, and I'm not a Eurovision fan either. That's more like it. I don't love it as much as the very best of TDC, but I'll give it a 4.5. That sounds exciting. It's always such a rush if a favourite artist performs a rarely played song on request. I hope the link still works next week or someone will upload it on YouTube.
Jiggery Ah, I rember this song at least. And do kind of like the baboons. I agree with @jon-senior that it's probably a song that people (who don't like Divine Comedy) would expect them to sound like! I'll give it a 1.5 as it's better than The Sweet Spot.
Jiggery Pokery As it's a musical joke, surely not worth analysing? Amusing, melodic, with some great production choices, this continues the album's winning streak. It's admittedly probably not as suited for repeated listening as the other tracks we've heard, but as a moment of levity within the album (or a playlist), it does its job well. 3.8
Jiggery Pokery I like the way the song really stretches out a moment in time, putting something that happened in a few seconds into slow motion and telling it through the eyes and thoughts of the batsman (I'm afraid don't know who it is, even with the very descriptive video!). Even I have heard of Shane Warne's 'ball of the century' (but didn't know the first detail until now..!), so its nice that the song is from the opposite perspective. Highlights for me are the bowler and his handlebar moustache (as though it is another player!), the image of the guy focussing on his dinner, and the cheese roll line. I'm not keen on the baboons. No idea how much of this was Neil's doing, but to me it feels like a forerunner to parts of Bang Goes The Knighthood, for being overtly silly and clever yet really on the nose, and because it's piano-led (although Bang itself isn't that piano-y, I'm thinking of the tour). Presumably he was writing both at the same time, so it would make sense. Nice live version, I enjoyed that I think 3.4/5.0
Probably worth saying, as well, that if the whole album had sounded like this, it would have been dreadful. But it doesn't, so that's fine.
Jiggery Pokery Oh yes please. This is such a good example of a man-and-his-piano comedy song! Partly because it’s not just a man and his piano - it is so much the richer for all the backing vocals and instrumentation (cf that cool bass voice mixed low under the second chorus) - but the arrangement is good enough that, in tone, it still feels like a solo performance in a theatre or pub. I agree with those above: it's impressive to stretch a decent story out of a momentary event. Which, if I'm being cruel, is a fitting comment on cricket commentary, wherein broadcasters talk for hours about essentially nothing. Although I love it, it’s the kind of song that I’ll sometimes skip if it comes up and I’m not in the mood, but that’s true of anything in this tradition (and similar traditions - including the finest work of Gilbert and Sullivan, to which I wouldn’t hesitate to award five stars) - so therefore 5/5. I sort of agree - in that I'm incredibly glad that the album is as rich and varied and wonderful as it is. However, I do also wish Neil had done more songs like this throughout his career. I'm now tempted to go and make a playlist of his out-and-out comedy songs, but are there actually enough of them?
So I don't really like these type of Noel Cowardy songs that much, so this is not a favourite on the album. The Baboons are fun but I don't really come to it that much, it doesnt offer much to me musically. 2/5 Lyrically its fun, as others have said its about Shane Warnes famous Ball of the Century in the ashes - maybe @DaniMoonstar can go into more detail here, this ashes series was a bit before my time. Its nice to have the song from Mike Gatting's perspective. Shane Warne did do it again a decade later, in another Ashes series this time to former England captain Andrew Strauss: As for the slightly cruel remarks about Gatting's weight - I think this was a common theme! "If it had been a cheese role it would never have got past him" is a quote from his own team mate, England and Essex legend Graham Gooch!
Here's a couple of examples from one of the best batting performances of recent years https://youtu.be/HrIew7-4isI?t=221
I think there are, but most of them are on upcoming albums... (And if we're going to be nitpicky, does a playlist actually need more than one song to be a playlist?)
Haha - depends on your definition of 'list', I suppose. But when I walk past a Tesco I don't look at their name on the building and think 'I wonder why they've listed supermarket names above the door'.
"Jiggery Pokery": as I said in a previous post, I looked up what this was about after the record came out and, not being a cricket fan, it basically elicited a shrug. As a song, it's...okay? If I played this album regularly, I'd skip this. 2/5
