FAIRGROUND ATTRACTION – "Perfect"

I’ll always associate this with the Asda adverts.

Largely forgettable.

I remember this as being a gender divide record: all the young women in our group of friends loved it; all the young men didn’t.
I think the point about it being impeccably intimate is true. To those who liked it, it sounded like an indie record that had been recorded properly, where everyone could play and the singer could hit the right note and the producer knew how to make it sound shiny. But, of course, that’s not what it sounded like to those of use who liked our indie incompetence.
It’s one of those records, though, that has suffered from its reuse over years in ads – not constant, but just enough to to mildly irritate. And, because the only part that ever gets used is the chorus, the song gets reduced to to just that moment, which is easy to tire of.

I remember when she won the Best British female BRIT against Geri Halliwell and Mel C back in 2000. It was widely percieved as a two horse race between the two spices, with Mel expected to take it.

Quite amusing when the comparatively unknown Reader swiped it. You never get quirky results like that any more unfortunately.

When this was performed on Christmas Top of the Pops, Eddi Reader sang while peeling a satsuma and distributing the segements among the audience, which I thought was rather nice. Apart from that, inoffensive school disco fodder. Three is a bit harsh, maybe a five from me.

call the peters friends police!

there’s so much about fairground attraction that drives me into an irrational rage that i really don’t know where to begin. is there anything, i mean anything, worse than posh english* people being slightly wacky and politely bohemian? (where bohemian means dicking about wearing a bowler hat and having a fucking double bass). the covent garden buskers from hell. i know ‘smug’ is the laziest charge there is, but really. and this isn’t even to mention eddie reader’s horrifyingly long afterlife – a BRIT award in 2000!

and yet, worst of all, the record itself is kind of disarming. okay, it’s more than that, it’s enjoyable. i like it. bastards.

*um, are they scottish then?

Terrible record. I could have sworn it was older than this, though.

Just listened for the first time – pleasant background music but it wears out its welcome. The vintage songs it’s trying to throw back to would have been well wrapped up by the 2:45 mark I think, so this just gets a chorus too many. The “ee-e-e-e-e-” is nicely done I admit.

it’s appropriate that punctum should mention Rickie Lee Jones, as at the time of this song’s release she was used as a reference point by critics – largely because of a superficial resemblance to ‘Chuck Es in Love’ (prominent acoustic guitar, jazz inflections). As an RLJ fan I was outraged – both by the comparison and by this song’s success when RLJs own career had stalled. In hindsight it’s the lack of complexity which made this an easier sell.
‘Perfect’ lacks much sense of being grounded in real life or experience – not always a bad thing in pop but somehow irritating in a song whose production and sentiment want to suggest authenticity.

Eddie Reader later appeared in John Byrne’s TV series ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’ – which I vaguely remember as being rather bleak

I’m in a minority with this one, or so it seems. I’ve wondered, for a little while, since it’s been coming up, what Tom’s and the FT commentariat’s reaction to ‘Perfect’ would be. For my part, I was thinking: Worth an eight, Tom’ll probably give it at least a six. This is one of the biggest discrepancies between my own estimation of a record and everyone else’s, so it seems.

To me, this is a restatement of classic pop values, which reaches back to the Fifties for inspiration. In fact, you could almost imagine ‘Perfect’ as one of 1958’s run of Number Ones. It has all the qualities of the pop of those days, and it’s a thoroughly happy affair into the bargain. Naive maybe, but uplifting nonetheless. What it conveyed on first hearing to the average singles buyer of 1988 I can’t really say, but it must have sounded unusual to say the least, being the product of earlier values and earlier technology. As someone who’s fond of the Fifties, and took the trouble to find out about the era as history, ‘Perfect’ has immediate appeal. As a pop tune of 1988, it made a refreshing change from a scene that was becoming remote, contrived and artificial, and in which I was losing interest.

Fairground Attraction’s take on the Fifties (and I shall be assuming, for the sake of argument, that it IS a take on the Fifties) is a rather different affair from that of the more overtly ‘revivalist’ bands. It borrows from styles which existed back then, without exactly replicating any one of them. It goes in for subtle allusions, like the Elliot Erwitt and Hulton Picture Library photography used on their album covers, rather than the gaudy, drapes-and-drains approach of the ‘fun’ rock’n’roll revivalists like Showaddywaddy. ‘Perfect’ is a simple affair and the closest they actually got to rock ‘revival’; just a few instruments, a singer (former backing vocalist Eddi Reader) who could sing rings around a lot of her contemporaries, and a few period touches like the backing vocals and the ‘rockabilly’ guitar solo, which along with the ‘It’s got to be-e-e-e-e-e perfect!’ hook was one of the main selling points of the record.

‘Perfect’, along with the album it came from, ‘The first of a million kisses’ were big successes in 1988-1989, winning the 1989 Brit Awards for Best Single and Best Album respectively. There was going to be a second album of new material but that came to nought, with the band splitting in 1990. A further album, ‘Ay Fond Kiss’, consisting of covers and B-sides, appeared. Contrary to what one might expect, it’s very, very good. The band demonstrate that yep, they do like the Fifties, turning in an a capella cover of ‘Mystery Train’, and a take on ‘Walking After Midnight’. But probably the best thing on there is the rendition of the eponymous Robert Burns poem. There is no fancy production, nothing that doesn’t need to be there. The Fifties were never quite like this.

Was there anything not to like about ‘Perfect’? Well, in my opinion, it doesn’t quite live up to its title; maybe it’s too reptitive, maybe too naive, and I certainly think it plods a bit. It lacks the lightness of touch that would get it into the nines and tens. I’ll stick with eight.

Wow, what an extraordinary reaction. It’s times like these that I’m glad I haven’t owned a TV during the decade I’ve lived in Britain, if its use on adverts has contributed to everyone’s loathing of it.

One of four number ones that Australia had in common with the UK in 1988, and I remember it well; it spent four weeks at the top there. In fact I can never see the title of Kylie’s “Got to be Certain” without setting it in my head to this tune, which has utterly erased any memory I had of the other.

Shouting in your ear? If you’re wearing headphones, I suppose, but I’ve never heard this on headphones; on the radio and telly in 1988 it sounded fine, and over my computer speakers just now it did too. It’s about 45 seconds too long, I agree, but the retro skiffle backing is harmless enough, given the many other forms of retro we’re happy enough to hear.

I’ll forever associate this with one of the music reviewers on our student mag at Tas Uni that year, who went on to an indie singer-songwriter career in Melbourne. He quite liked it, and so do I. 6.

#22: Perhaps I was basing my estimation of what you thought of the music of 1958…but as you said, one of the qualities of 1958’s run of number ones was their ‘modernity’. This was not modern in 1988, I grant you…

Its curious that many of the comments reference the problems with this being faux-indie, as it seems much closer to the rest of what punctum calls with laser sharp accuracy “sophisto-Scot soulcialism”. The breezy Patsy Cline-lite vocals and the 50s twang were elements that could be found in many of their Glasgow contemporaries, those “Precious Organisation”, first ‘Honey at the Core’ album, Hipsway, Love and Money and (eventually) Texas. It wasn’t a scene that made much sense (or indeed much of a scene since it seemed to be mainly drinking at the ‘Rock Garden’ after having been clothes shopping across the road at ‘Flip’ ). But the flat plastic production, strong pop music hook and the slightless, least offensive hint of motown soul are defining elements of these groups.

It’s brash commercial pop music. Brash commercial pop music is alway disrespectful to its roots – its what it does.

So, while you’re not going to get much love from me for Wet Wet Wet or Hue and Cry either, this seemed at least better than them, (though nowhere near the likes of Win).

slightless is a nice word!

Since the three members of Fairground Attraction who weren’t Eddi Reader went on to provide backing for Kevin Ayers (MY GREAT HERO) on his 1992 album Still Life With Guitar, I consider them beyond criticism!

Liked this lots at the time, although I’d agree it hasn’t worn too well. It worked as a contrast with everything else around it (in chart pop terms, that is), so part of its appeal simply sprang from that contrast: the understated simplicity, the acoustic-ness, etc. Remove the contrast, and you also remove some of that initial appeal.

But then again, you can also detect a deliberate attempt at creating a “timeless classic”, which places it very much in context with those “sophisto-Scot soulcialism” values as mentioned by punctum at #5 and Sandy at #30. So, despite its apparent air of unforced breeziness, it’s actually rather a self-conscious record after all…

Absolutely hated this with a vengeance. I’m not sure why, it could be her voice, it could be the sentiment, it could be the melody, even the arrangement & production – I suspect it’s all of those. I know it’s intensely irritating and has that added Z-factor that really annoying records have. Over time I’ve learnt to let it drift by me though so I no longer have a wobble when I chance on it. 1

Re #17: I realise that I’m probably being a bit unfair on Fairground Attraction, but its the kind of sentiment that I can see being co-opted by the more disagreeable undergraduates that I teach, the ones who always seem to be discarding more agreeable and sympathetic boyfriends and girlfriends because they’re worth more than this, etc…

In passing – is there any phrase more terrifying than Allmusic’s biography of Fairground Attraction as “British neo-skiffle”? Conjures up images of skinheads with washboards marching down Whitehall.

3 seems a little harsh, but there isn’t really enough in it to give it more than 5; I’d say a 4.

It’s just a bit too nice as though a hand-painted teacup or a charming vase had somehow made it to number one

Light Entertainment Watch: Only the two UK TV appearances on the list;

BIG WORLD CAFE: with Eagle Eye Cherry, Mariella Frostrup, Fairground Attraction, MC Buzz-B (1989)

WOGAN: with Fairground Attraction, Barry Gibb, Louise Medus, Edward Petherbridge, Peter Spiers, Julie T. Wallace, Ton Yendell (1988)

I was sure I’d never heard this song, the name didn’t ring any bells, but once the video starts I’m singing along. I don’t know what version of this I know.

This song’s new to me. Right off the bat then I hear what Tom’s getting at: this is perhaps just a little underdone musically and instrumentally relative to the stuff it’s aping. ‘Insipid’ is the word that springs to mind (never a good sign for a pop song, tho’ it’s triggered surprisingly often – I guess that there’s a kind of eager-to-please-ness that’s a perennial trap for pop!) Dare I say it, however, couldn’t we leave Mark Ronson in a studio with this for a couple of hours, and it’d most likely come back in a state that wouldn’t irritate? Anyhow, a 3 or a 4 from me as it stands (but no #1 so far in 1988 gets more than a 6 from me).

Thanks to Punctum for the background: Morrissey *was* going great guns as a solo artist until Kill Uncle hit. ‘Sing your life’ was OK tho'(I bought it – it had M’s dodgy version of ‘That’s Entertainment’ on it.), which I guess does resemble Perfect somewhat.

C’mon, why not just actually say it? IT’S MUSIC FOR IDIOTS.
Some sane and decent people might like it for particular reasons, but overall this is a song which can be liked and hummed by the utterly clueless, without ever engaging their brains. When music matters a lot to you, music for idiots is deeply offensive.