By DJ Monk
If ever an album lives up to its title, it is this latest compilation from our favourite rock ‘n’ roll rascals, Rum Bar Records, who seem to have an uncanny knack of unearthing long-lost gems from dusty faults, cleaning them down and bringing them, deservedly, back to the attention of the fans who have been craving for the spotlight to placed back in on such hidden glories.
OK, a quick history lesson first: The Real Impossibles were formed in late 1983, after guitarist Marc Platt released a five-track EP, ‘Get The Big Picture’, using that monicker. It received such a good response that Platt formed a band: over the next five years, which saw multiple line-up changes (including former Motels drummer Brian Glasscock), the project released a solitary single and another EP, before the shutters came down almost five years to the day after they were formed, in November 1988. This collection of resurrected material features remastered copies of the aforementioned releases, plus some songs that, outside of an Australian compilation released in 2014, have never seen the proper light of day.
Kicking off with both sides of the band’s solitary single, ‘Burned’ and ‘Cherry Cherry’, it is clear that a lot of effort has been expended, in an ironic way, to preserve the energy and live feel of the original recordings: ‘Burned’ is a nice slice of classic garage rockabilly, while ‘Cherry Cherry’ evokes the psychedelia-meets-surfari feel of the Sixties, complete with Beach Boys/Yardbirds-style “doot-doot” gang vocals.
Even though these songs date from the early- to mid-Eighties, many of them sound like they have been ripped from the heart of the late-Sixties, especially in their use of vocal harmonies on the likes of ‘With A Girl’, which strongly echo those of the Flower Power era. At the same time, however, there is a very strong nascent Only Ones-style power-pop feel to many of the tracks, especially on the likes of ‘Talkin Bout You’, ‘All Over This World’, ‘Is It Love’ and ‘Against The Grain’.
This is an interesting re-issue. To be brutally honest, it probably will appeal almost exclusively to retro-pop purists – but, that’s it’s point, in that it brings a collection of previously lost songs back to life for both those who maybe remember them from the first time around, or those wishing to explore the LA pop underground of the era in which they were produced. And, for that, it is a worthy and timely resurrection.
- ‘It’s About Time’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
www.facebook.com/Real-Impossibles
- All content © Über Rock. Not to be reproduced in part or in whole without the express written permission of Über Rock.