Well... when a new band comes along, you gotta listen to at least one album, eh?
The Seaside in particular intrigued me due to it's artsy-fartsy album cover, featuring a hand-coloured image of Jim Smith next to a pattern of coloured stripes. Doing some more research, it's actually a... demo album? Why was it officially released by the ABC then? Is this the life? Is this the iron age?
...okay, jokes aside, I have a feeling it's because they actually had the budget for decent recording equipment... which didn't appear to be the case in their first two demo albums, The Obvious Identity and Toy World. Then again, by the time they did Archive, it appears they already lost most of the master tapes for both albums. They were apparently recorded in a basement studio in Surrey (Crow Studios) when Tim had very little cash to invest in the project. Anyhoo, what was I originally on about again..? Oh, the Seaside.
