The Shoes (1979) Cruel You - LOST 70s GEMS

The Shoes' 1979 release Present Tense was facing an uphill challenge after blowing out the gate with their prior album Black Vinyl which contained a mountain of diverse, well produced and edgy power pop and psych rock. Your Very Eyes has a delicate, smooth acoustic melody, if only more pop songs carried such restrained emotion and craft. John Murphy writes some strong tunes like In My Arms Again, a kickass power pop song with shades of Foreigner. There are other influences in there; Now and Then is a hard rocking number with chugging rhythms and Aerosmith styled vocals, Every Girl has a Big Star sounding, crystal clear jangle and Three Times is dominated by a Badfinger mix of bouncy drum fills and hauntingly wistful vocals. My favourite and today's gem is Cruel You with it's perfect mix of their three dimensional, insanely pretty harmonies and a ton of energy that is lacking from most of the album. It's also well written, the lyrical strengths of this band are only matched by their tight pop rock rhythm section and John Murphy's songs. Every verse line ends in a beautiful sung line of 'I didn't know what to do?' capturing the helpless teenager accurately, power pop bands ultimately transport us back to our teen years for me its been seven long years since I was a teenager but these supple melodies, pure vocals and simple rhythms are enough to take me back.