Galore > Reviews > Galore- a wonderful collection!

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Not applicable
Value for Money

Advantages:	Great songs, good back up music, fantastic voice
Disadvantages:	No more music to come .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I didn't know much about Kirsty MacColl when i heard the news that she had died. It was all over the news when she died on the 18th December 2000. She died just of the coast of Cozumel(a paradise island off of Mexico,) whilst scuba diving. She was with her two teenage sons when she was swimming back to the boat when a large speedboat came flying towards her. She screamed and pushed her two sons aside but she was hit and killed instantly. Absolutely tragic as she was only 41 and had just kick-started her career again with a new album. She is sadly missed by many many fans.

About two years later i was watching the Magic Channel when on came 'A New England.' I absolutely the song and the video was very funny too! So i went straight out to MVC and bought Galore as it had that track on it. I paid £8.99 for it which wasn't bad at all. I took it home and listened to A New England a few times and then i listened to a few other tracks, I have had it about 6 months now and i absolutely love all the songs and i can't stop listening to them. Galore reached number 6 in the UK Album charts and remained in the top 75 for 27 weeks.

The Tracks:
.......................................

They Don't know- 3.02
A New England-3.49
He's On The Beach - 3.32
There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis - 3.07
Miss Otis Regrets( She's Unable To Lunch Today)- 2.49
Free World- 2.36
Days- 3.00
Innocence- 4.00
My Affairs- 5.24
Angel - 3.50
Titanic Days- 5.44
Can't Stop Killing You- 4.10
Caroline- 2.56
Perfect Day-3.51

They Don't Know- This is a very good song about two people who are in love. They are really happy together but nobody approves of their relationship. This is not made very clear and is left to the imagination! The song is all about how people should just accept it and how it is none of there business. 'They don't know what love is', Nice song but i'm not sure if it should be the first track on the album as others are much better than it. When i'm listening to Galore i usually skip it and go onto A New England and then listen to the rest of the album from there. This was her debut single back in 1979.

A New England- This is a real favourite of mine. It is very 80's music and if you are into that sort of thing(like me) you will love it. The song is all about growing up and how people grow up at different times. In this case Kirsty is the girl who hasn't grown up and people are wondering when she will grow up. 'People ask me when will i grow up to understand why the girls i knew at school are already pushing prams' It is not a very upbeat song but it does have funny lines in it- i put you on a pedastool, you put me on the pill! And 'i saw tow shooting stars last night, i wished on them but they were only sateillites! Also she loves this boy but you get the feeling that they have grown apart. 'Are you looking for another girl?' Also it tells the story about how she loves him writing to her but she hasn't heard from him in a while and she 'can't survive on what he's said'. And how she stayed up all night once waiting for him to call her but he never did. Shame! This was number 7 in the UK charts in December 1984 and stayed in the top 75 for ten weeks. Really great backing music on this track. The choreography is flawless. Great song.

He's On The Beach- This is my absolute favourite Kirsty song. It's just exceptional! It's the next track after A New England and the two songs go really well together as their melodies are so similar. It's all about a friend that Kirsty had and they had lots of fun together and 'used to share a taste for wine'. Then the boy goes through a bad patch and decides to go on a very long holiday to Sydney, Australia. My favourite line in the song is ' When he called me up one day and said that he was going away; i thought he meant a week in France and not 12 thousand miled to Sydney Bay!' Classic! He's on the beach obviously refers to all the surfing the boy has been doing in Australia. Also chatting up girls aswell! She describes him as being 'so out of reach' as he is at the other side of the world. The video is also great. Kirsty plays the part of the girl that knows him and a newsreporter. The boy has gone missing and the Australians think that he has proabbly drowned whilst surfing. In England it is on the headlines aswell and journalists are trying to get into the girl who knows him's house but she refuses to speak. She then does come out to speak and kirsty plays that part. Then it flashes back to the news studio and kirsty is the reporter. At the end the boy in found dead and the last shot of the vid is of a newspaper which says 'Body Update- He's On The Beach'. Sad but a brilliant song. It is really upbeat and catchy and i love it! It was released in June 1985 and was on the same disk with Please, Go to Sleep. It was released as a picture disk in the shape on a Qantas Aeroplane.

'Chip Shop. Too long to write out-sorry! This is a very bouncy cheerful song which marked the start of a come back from Kirsty in 1993, after an absence. It was a hit in 1981 and then re-relased. It's all about lying and deceit. As the title states there is a chip shop worker who insists to Kirsty that he is Elvis! Obviously that is a lot of rubbish! She has a boyfriend or a partner or something that she suspects of being a fake. She wants him to be straight with her and not dissapoint her by lying and then coming out as a fake. She then refers back to the chip shop guy- he's a liar and i'm not sure about you.' Good song and a touch of country music which is great!

Fairytale of New York- This really is a classic and is always on especially around Christmas time. Kirsty did it as a duet with the Paques. It is quite a downbeat and slightly depressing track but it is still great! It's all about a girl who is either dying or going to prison(i'm not sure!) reflecting on her rocky relationship with this guy. The song starts with the girl saying that 'i've got a feeling, this year's for me and you'. She then goes into the story of how they met etc. She first goes through all the nice memories which is actually quite a pleasant part of the song! The guy was a singer and was very popular. 'You were handsome, you were pretty' and 'when the band finished playing, they cried out for more'. She says that they met one cold christmas eve. He took her hand and they kissed on a corner and danced into the night. He then promised her that Broadway was waiting for her and he would turn her into a star. This never materialized as he 'took her dreams from her' and dashed them! They then launch straight into slagging each other off. She calls him a'cheap lousy faggot' and he calls her an 'old slut on junk, lying there on a drip almost dead in that bed'. Not very nice but these are classic lines! This was a big hit in 1987 and reached number 2 in the UK Charts. On Top of the Pops Kirsty had to change the lyrics slightly: from 'You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lousy faggot' to 'You scumbag, you maggot, you're cheap and your haggard' to make it slightly more tasteful. Top track!

Miss Otis Regrets(She's Unable To Lunch Today)- This is another slightly depressing track about a woman who murders her lover. Kirsty narrates the story of the woman's crime and how she can't go to lunch because she is dead! She killed him because he left her and led her astray. So 'from under her velvet gown, she drew a gun and shot him down'. The 'mob' then come and arrest her and she is sentenced to death. The last line is very moving ' and the moment before she died, she lifted up her lovely hair and cried Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today'. This is very poignant because it shows that she isn't really a evil and bitter woman she was just dangerously in love with someone. It was originally released on the Red Hot and Blue album in 1990.

Free World- this is a song about how the world is today and how people can change. Kirsty sings about a man that she knows who has changed in this modern world. She says 'if i wore your shades, could a share your point of view'. Which is my favourite line in the track. It's a really lively and catchy song which is good to dance to. This man used to be liked by a lot of people but he has become too ruthless in the modern world and had alienated all of his friends. For example, because he is quite nasty Kirsty sings ' i thought of you when they closed down the school and the hospital too. Not very nice but it sounds as if he deserves it. The song goes onto talk about things that have changed in the work such as- ghettos full of mercedes-benz's, men and woman united in the struggle of the world and 'pockets full of plastic', Great song which is also quite similar in context to 'Innocence' which is also on the album. Again, a line had to be changed from: "get it up and shag it' to 'get it up and wag it' so that it would not be so scandelous on the radio! Free world was released in 1989.

Days- What can i say apart from thankyou for the days! A touching but catchy song about all the good times Kirsty has spent with this person. I think it has been released again by a different artist. Released on the Kite Album in 1989.

Walking down Madison- This is a really bouncy and catchy song but it is about very sad things. Obviously its about Madison. But it is about the two different Madisons- the one where everything is luxurious and people are rich and the other is about people who have nothing and are living in poverty. This is shown with lines like: 'form the sharks in the pentouse to the rats in the basement'. The sharks being the rich people who are living it up in luxury accomodation and the rats being the poor people who are living homless on in grotty bedsits and flats. It's also about some of the rich people who feel guilty about the fact that they have loads of cash and others have none. For example: ' you feel real guilty about the coat on your back and the sandwitch you had'. There are also really sad lines about homless people: ' the bag lady frozen asleep on the church steps' In the middle of the song there is a rap bit done by a male artist. It's about homless people and the story of a young mother who has to go into prostitution to feed her baby. Very sad but a really good song. I saw kirsty performing it on TOTP2 the other day and she was tremendous!
It was released as a single in 1991 and sadly only made it to number 22 in the charts.

My Affairs- I really really love this song, its excellent. It's all about a young woman and her controlling parents who can't except that she is growing up. The tell her 'what to wear and to not to cut her hair'. Despite this she has boyfriends and gets busted finally by her parents. It such a classically funny line: 'i couldn't stop i wanted more and i didn't here the door and they caught me on the floor with my affair' Wow how embarassing would that be! Then she marries him and are obviously quite and active couple because they 'bedded half their lives away' and used to 'stay in bed all day' Rock on! Then live the high live for awhile before he dumps her for a silly little girl who 'leaves him with his money spent' Serves him right. Then afterwards she is saying how its none of his business what she does now. Best line of the song- 'now it's now concern of your's if i sleep with the president'!!!
Sadly despite its entertaining content it only managed to srape into the charts at number 56 and fell out of the charts completely in just two weeks. Still, better than nothing!

Angel- This is a really beautiful 'heavenly' song. Its good as a break to the rather lively other tracks on the album. It's all about love and love being compared to an angel and a spirit. It goes on about love sleeping and love dreaming and then the girl in the song is dreaming and sleeping. It's sort of a parallel between the person in the song and love. It emplies that when love 'wakens' it can just sort of pass into anyone and affect them: 'And when it wakes again who knows the company it's keeping'. Then the song goes on about somebody that person in the song loves. We get this impression with lines like 'And far above my room I thought I heard you crying I am calling "Come with me. Come on in and take me by the hand. Come give me what I understand" Really nice song and obviously a lot of thought must have gone into coming up with these very romantic sensitive lines. It reached number 26 on the billboard tracks.

The tracks that i have written about are my favourites but the others are great aswell. This album is a fantastic mix between really lively upbeat songs and calm and soft songs. The contrast goes very well together which doesn't always happen. This is a great album in which to sample the best of Kirsty's work without buying all the albums which would cost a lot. It's especially good for new kirsty fans like me. In fact i love this album so much that i have ordered Tropical Brainstorm, kirsty's final album and i can't wait to listen to it. Although it would have to be something seriously sensational to beat this album. Go on, buy it!!!

Thanks for reading, Paul.