10. January 2017 By Walter Price 0

New To Me: Would Be Goods Miss La-di-dah

Would Be Goods “Miss La-di-dah” discovered.

The Would-Be-Goods single “Miss-la-di-dah” is taken from their 2004 unheard of by me album The Morning After, so Excusez-moi if I sound naive. What I am is blown away by this raw garage-psyche-pop gem that scrambled my senses when I learned it was not recorded in the late to mid-sixties.

The track’s soundtrack is simple perfection but the star of the song is vocalist Jessica Griffin. Is Griffin an obscure French pop star turned British indie pop purveyor or is she just so uniquely persuasive, elegant and unpinpointable it all works and that is that. I need to dig deeper, and this is now…and I will.

“The Would-Be-Goods are back, their eccentric and evocative guitar pop honed by two years of live performance. Jessica Griffin, enigmatic star of eighties cult label él, is still at the helm, with her crew of elegant rascals – Peter Momtchiloff, guitarist (Talulah Gosh, Razorcuts, Heavenly, Scarlet’s Well) and occasional songsmith; Debbie Green, drummer and darling of the London nineties garage scene (Headcoatees); and Lupe Nuñez-Fernandez, bass player and co-founder of cosmopolitan East London quietists Pipas. These twelve songs demonstrate that the Would-Be-Goods have lost none of their melancholy charm or wit but have moved beyond the ornate eclecticism of their acclaimed third album ‘Brief Lives’ (2002) to a classic guitar pop sound ranging from new folk (‘Bluebeard’) through tango (the poignantly funny ‘Too Old’) to garage rock (‘Miss La-di-dah’). Love songs to lions, frolics in the Garden of Eden, French casanovas and personal demons await you. Let the Would-Be-Goods be your guides.” – Matinée Recordings