{"id":30589,"date":"2024-06-12T10:34:36","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T09:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/?p=30589"},"modified":"2024-06-12T10:41:22","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T09:41:22","slug":"single-review-the-swinging-laurels-falling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/single-review-the-swinging-laurels-falling\/","title":{"rendered":"Single review – The Swinging Laurels, Falling"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Reviewed by\u00a0Phil Taylor<\/a>\u00a0(see his Music Observer blog\u00a0here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Release date: 10\/05\/24<\/p>\n

Four decades ago, pioneering Leicester sax and synth pop band, The Swinging Laurels<\/a>, signed a record deal with WEA Records. Numerous singles followed over the 10-year life of the band; they won Boy George as a fan, collaborated with bands including The Fun Boy Three, played in support of The Clash, and appeared on TV and radio countless times.<\/p>\n

But they never released an album.<\/p>\n

On 10th May 2024, that all changed. Over the past few years, John Barrow and Gaz Birtles, who founded the band in 1979 and who have both continued separate, successful music careers with involvement in bands such as The Beautiful South, Yellowbelly and the Fun Lovin\u2019 Criminals, have worked to collate and curate The Swinging Laurels\u2019 back catalogue. The result is Return to the Future. For good measure, they\u2019ve created an album package which boasts 17 tracks in total, including all of their previous singles.<\/p>\n

Falling is track number 8 on the album. It\u2019s a tune which, if you\u2019ve never heard the band before, is the perfect introduction to their sound and ethos. For fans, it will of course be a welcome and familiar treat. It opens with warm, wavy synths which spiral upwards, before the classically-80s vocals kick in to pull us back down to Earth, briefly.<\/p>\n

\u201cFalling \u2026 head over heels in love\u201d is the rich refrain we\u2019re introduced to here, and this will return again and again. It\u2019s all very upbeat and joyful, with a kind of inner radiance \u2013 a sense of internal sunshine.<\/p>\n

The song later enters a slightly different phase during the verse, but it\u2019s a short phase, with more strident vocals (very redolent of the B52s) which seem to serve the purpose of pointing us back to that main motif: \u201cFalling\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s taken two minutes, but here comes that ubiquitous sax, pushing in to lead us on a winding instrumental road for a while. The sax paves the way and accompanies keyboard riffs and elevated drums, and then – yes, that vocal theme again. The point is well and truly driven home: we\u2019re in the heady throes of love and that is that.<\/p>\n

This song is a neat package of synth-led song writing, of unbridled happiness and colour, which heralds the return of The Swinging Laurels in all their glory.<\/p>\n

The Swinging Laurels\u2019 album package was released by Leicester independent label, Scatola Rosa.<\/p>\n

Order your 12″ colour Vinyl album and 17 track CD which includes all the album tracks plus six previous singles \u2013 available from\u00a0 Rough Trade<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for The Swinging Laurels’ web site<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four decades ago, pioneering Leicester sax and synth pop band, The Swinging Laurels, signed a record deal with WEA Records. Numerous singles followed over the 10-year life of the band; they won Boy George as a fan<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":30590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[339,217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-339","category-recorded_music_reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Swingin-Laurels.jpg?fit=1000%2C570&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p73uhX-7Xn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30674,"url":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/album-review-the-swinging-laurels-return-to-the-future\/","url_meta":{"origin":30589,"position":0},"title":"Album review – The Swinging Laurels, Return to the Future","author":"Kevin Gaughan","date":"25\/09\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"A few months ago, I reviewed a song called Falling (read the review here), which forms a small part of an album released in May by legendary Leicester sax and synth pop band The Swinging Laurels.","rel":"","context":"In "2024"","block_context":{"text":"2024","link":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/Music\/2024\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Swingin-Laurels.jpg?fit=1000%2C570&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Swingin-Laurels.jpg?fit=1000%2C570&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Swingin-Laurels.jpg?fit=1000%2C570&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Swingin-Laurels.jpg?fit=1000%2C570&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":19110,"url":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/review-sweet-amber-at-the-soundhouse-friday-17th-may-2019\/","url_meta":{"origin":30589,"position":1},"title":"Review – Sweet Amber at The Soundhouse, Friday 17th May 2019","author":"Kevin Gaughan","date":"24\/05\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"With Cornflakes at Kelly\u2019s, Entwives and Shackleford Reviewed by Yuki Hozumi. 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