1990s
Cookies
Rough Trade/Shock



From the ashes of The Yummy Fur, Jackie McKeown starting messing around writing songs with a mate after being disillusioned with the indie circuit. 'Cookies' is the result from the Glasgow three-piece. And what a gem it is: razor sharp guitar, spare drums and punchy bass, perfected by the harmonised vocals with lyrics covering classic pop territory such as girls, parties and drugs.

The opening track You Made Me Like It rips up the floorboards with its desperate party mentality. Cult Status is a (piss)take on cult celebrity, summed up with the lines "Cult status keeps me alive/My cult status keeps me fucking your wife", replete with minimal but unsparing guitar solos.

Arcade Precinct, about meeting vacuous girls in shopping malls, slows down for a bit of the old "lalalalala-lalalaaa" in the chorus - what's a pop song without some of that action? Is There A Switch For That? picks things up again with its persistent beat and shared chorus. Enjoying Myself is all about exactly that: taking drugs in the forest and partying with friends. The breezy organ in Pollokshields adds a wistful nostalgia for home and old friends smoking bongs. Ooh ooh ooooh. Weed is another woozy slow paced number, semi-psychedelic about... well, smoking too much weed. With its lyric "If you talk to the clowns who let you down/You speak only to the ringmaster", it smacks of drug-addled paranoia and reasoning. Situation rocks on at a quick pace, smooth and echoing some light imitation sixties pyschedelia, almost fading completely only to build up into a raucous frenzy.

Each track is exercise in pop dynamics, crafted and executed with skill and humour. There's no heavy subject matter here: its tongue in cheek with a shit eating grin; in fact the album finishes with the band laughing at the end of the recording. It's all here, right up in front, no surprises - except for how much fun it is.

Blake Lewis