REDISCOVERED

Drop Out: 30th Anniversary Edition

Life-affirming jangle pop reissued with singles and rarities

Byrdsian brothers: Martin (left) and Paul Kelly (right) with East Village

RICHARDBELLIA

HEAVENLY

9/10

DROP Out was alost classic before it was even released.

The album was initially recorded in 1990 but didn’t appear until 1993, two years after East Village’s abrupt split. Drenched in C86 jangle with nods to Big Star, Teardrop Explodes and The Byrds, Drop Out was akin to Teenage Fanclub or The La’s in the way the band cheerfully embraced classic melodies but executed them with an independent spirit. The band were also integral –inseparable even –to the genesis of Heavenly Records, arelationship maintained to this day through brothers Paul and Martin Kelly.

The Kellys –Paul on guitar and Martin on bass – formed the band in London in the mid-1980s with guitarist John Wood and Spencer Smith on drums. Initially called Episode Four, they released acouple of singles on Sub Aqua, alabel formed by apre-Heavenly Jeff Barrett. Barrett then signed the band to Heavenly in 1990, by which time they had already started to record Drop Out –part funded by Bob Stanley of St Etienne. The album would eventually feature stunning material like the opener “Silver Train”, surely an influence on Primal Scream, or the yearning “When IWake Tomorrow”. That’s asong that summarises their ability to combine the sweetest melody with aslightly gnarly undertow, like acurious mix of the Stone Roses and Hüsker Dü. It’s asound that predates bands like Sugar and the Boo Radleys, who would explore similar styles in different ways, as well as the countless bands that would deliver increasingly pale imitations in the latter years of Britpop when such aclassic approach dissolved into parody. Unfortunately, East Village imploded before the album was even finished, but in 1993 were persuaded to go back and mix Drop Out, adding aclosing track, “Everybody Knows”, with vocals by Debsey Wykes. The Kellys would remain part of the wider Heavenly family –Martin working alongside Barrett at the label, while Paul moved into directing, notably with aseries of fantastic films for Heavenly flagbearers St Etienne in the form of Finisterre, What Have You Done Today, Mervyn Day? and This Is Tomorrow.