Even before Belle & Sebastian and Franz Ferdinand cited jangling, DiY indie as a touchstone, it had influenced Kurt Cobain (who covered The Vaselines' "Molly's Lips", featured here), the Manics and Saint Etienne. Essentially, indie-pop continued where Postcard records (Orange Juice, Josef K et al) left off a few years earlier (though minus the soul influences).
McGhie's solo debut is one of those funk records whose price (circa $600) and legend climbs in inverse proportion to the number of people who've actually heard it. Mercifully, it proves to be worth at least some of the fuss. A Studio One veteran who emigrated to Toronto in 1967, McGhie mostly abandoned reggae (save the fabulously amiable "Cool It") in favour of a grab-bag of funk and soul styles. The Sounds Of Joy have an easy grace, and McGhie makes a decent fist of "By The Time I Get To Phoenix". Militant crate diggers, though, will be weeping over the over-priced vinyl.
In something of an audacious coals-to-Newcastle move, this formerly London-based quartet upped sticks and headed west to become the darlings of the California alt.country/alt.folk scene, and can currently be found working a second job as Pete Yorn's backing band On Fly The Radar, their second full-length CD release since relocating, they continue to explore loneliness, love and loss, wrapping the sentiments up in unforgettable, harmony-drenched melody.
