Chelsea Girl

I was listening to Ride the other day, sparked off by an interview with them in The Guardian recently (about their re-union) and a recent clip of them playing live for a radio station I saw somewhere online. I think I've said this before but I often thought the guitars on their first few e.p.s and the first two albums were tremendous, a swirling, overdriven, effects pedal pleasure. The drumming was top notch too. It was the vocals (and the lyrics) that were off putting- although I realised this weekend that I can live with Mark Gardener's vocals much more than Andy Bell's. After the second lp they fell under the spell of Oasis and the brasher 90s version of Creation Records, and started making classic 60s rock. Much less interesting. Their early stuff definitely has its moments- Chelsea Girl is the first song on their first piece of vinyl.

Chelsea Girl