My Amazon Reviews: The Records "Smashes Crashes and Near Misses"

Breaking The Records, 
4 Out of 5 Stars

"Get Me Outta Your Starry Eyes and Be On Your Way!"

Back in the summer of 1978, as British New Wave was starting to crash across the American Shores, this single epitomized the power pop aspects of what radio programmers considered the palatable side of this new British Invasion. With a Byrdsian jangle guitar opening and Searchers-smooth harmony, "Starry Eyes" made The Records sound like the had the world in their pocket. And like so many New Wave one hit wonders, it was perfect pop encased on a three and a half minute seven inch 45.

John Wicks and Will Birch were the main team behind The Records. They created three albums in a three year period, the terrific debut, a sturdy second, "Crashes," and a mediocre third ("Music On Both Sides"). While I can't call them a great band, when you cull an hour's worth of singles/songs from these three albums, "Smashes Crashes and Near Misses" is power-pop on the level of The Knack, 20/20 and The Plimsouls. The deep harmonies were coupled with killer hooks; songs like "Starry Eyes," "Teenarama" and "Hearts In Her Eyes" are so stunningly good you wonder why The Records didn't catch fire. In fact, "Hearts In Her Eyes" was such a flawless imitation of The Searchers that The Searchers covered it on their 1980 comeback album Love's Melodies. They even pulled off a Bay City Rollers cover, a non-LP single of "Rock and Roll Love Letter."

The Records never re-captured the peak of "Starry Eyes" again, but if you think Nick Lowe (or his many productions) deserve space in the hall of fame, you'll probably like "Smashes Crashes and Near Misses." An additional footnote, American guitarist Jude Cole was the guitarist on "Crashes," and eventually had a decent solo career. When I met him and produced a copy of said Records record, he blushed.