Stackridge - Sex and Flags (CD, Imported)

This decidedly English band had the distinction of not only performing at the very first Glastonbury Festival, but also giving birth to pop supremos the Korgis, after founding members James Warren and Andy Davis departed for "newer waved" pastures. Stackridge and its members' long and convoluted history is told in typically elliptical Angel Air fashion in the CD booklet, if only as much attention had been paid to the track listing. Sex and Flags is not quite a new album, nor a proper reissue either. Bundling together tracks from the re-formed Stackridge's 1999 album, Something for the Weekend, the entirety of their next incarnation's 2003 Lemon EP, and freshly recorded numbers, the sleeve and booklet neglect to note the source of any of the tracks. Never mind, it's all Stackridge in its own fashion, and it's all good. No longer quite as eccentric as they are old, the members have mellowed with age, although their love of pastoral stylings, Beatles' chord progressions, and a very English sound, is as passionate as ever. It all makes for an incredibly eclectic mixture of music, ranging from the epic "Beating a Path," into the bright lights of the music hall-esque "Grooving Along the Highway on a Monday Morning Once," then "Sliding Down the Razorblade of Love" into blues, and up through the bouncy "Wonderful Day." It's a splendidly entertaining set, with the lineups changes barely noticeable. Regardless of repeated lineup permutations, this is still Stackridge in all its glory. ~ Jo-Ann Greene