Black Box Recorder - THE FACTS OF LIFE
A pretty girl
frowning against slabs of raw meat, you could not think of a more accurate
description of this album. John Moore and Luke Haines providing the brutal wit
and pop sensibilities, and Sarah Nixey singing in a way that is both sexual and
icy cold.
The Facts Of Life is one of my favourite albums of all time, and “The
Deverell Twins” could be the main reason for that. Not “Goodnight Kiss” with
backing vocals that would make you weep with joy. Not the title song, the
world’s most likeliest and most unlikeliest hit single. Not the ominous and
magical “The English Motorway System”. It's “The Deverell Twins”. With its
gorgeously sinister guitar line and with its chilling story of child suicide
dug up from the 19th century. This is intriguing songwriting.
Compared with two
other studio albums from Black Box Recorder, The Facts Of Life gets a very slight edge. It just feels like their
most realised and perfectly executed creation. And a good start for the decade:
seductive, sophisticated, impossibly cynical.
