aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser
# 103: The Undertones – ‘My Perfect Cousin’ (Sire ’80)
Dear friends,
for me, The Undertones simply had to feature in this series. I have always loved them very much, and even today I’d rate them as being one of my Top Five bands. Although they grew up in the punk or post-punk era, they were never ‘punk’ to me, a fabulous mixture between punk, power-pop, new wave and rhythm. The debut album from 1979 is ace, all killers, no fillers – and the second one, from a year later, is absolutely great as well. If you never listened to it in its entirety, you should do so soon!
They are often referred to as “Derry’s finest”, I know too little about the late 70s Derry music scene to be able to confirm this, but for sure they must have been somewhat special. They got together in 1974 and from 1975 to 1983 there were no personnel changes: Feargal Sharkey (vocals), John O’Neill (rhythm guitar), his brother Damian (lead guitar), Michael Bradley (bass) and Billy Doherty (drums) . This may not sound very important, but do me a favor and try to remember what you were up to when you were that young: I’m willing to have small bet that you did not write, record and release an album as groundbreaking as The Undertones’ debut (from (January) 1979, as I said) when you, like them, were only 21 (Feargal + Billy), 22 (John) 18 (Damian) or 20 (Michael). An album, mind you, which included the classic ‘Teenage Kicks’ in all its greatness!
But I went for something different today, one which perfectly shows what made The Undertones so very special: they were more into teenage angst and heartbreak than into politics, you see. They came up with very clever lyrics most of the time, put into shape by Feargal’s distinctive voice. We have their sixth single today, and as far as I know it’s the one that charted the highest. But don’t let that put you off, I could have chosen any single preceding this one, this is no chart-pop nonsense, this is The Undertones in top form:
mp3: The Undertones – My Perfect Cousin
Enjoy,
Dirk
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
I really enjoyed that with my first cup of coffee of the day.
The Undertones’ music is indeed difficult to categorize. Wikipedia lists four genres, of which I find power pop and especially pop punk appropriate.
Great rhyming couplets!!
A radio smash , but not among my favourite Undertones tracks, a bit suburban comedy-punk, almost a novelty single. Preferred the heartfelt classics: Wednesday Week, It’s Gonna Happen, Julie Ocean, Beautiful Friend, Turning Blue . . .
Love this song. And loved it even more when I learned what Subbuteo is.
Such a perfect little record. Such a whole thing. I met the bend once through my old job and I completely when too pieces.