I hadn’t heard Duncan “Kid” Reid’s old band The Boys until I bought their second album at age fourteen, so I guess it only makes sense that I start my Duncan Reid And The Big Heads exposure with the second album as well. And, whilst this record will hardly stoke the teenage froth of The Boys or Alternative Chartbusters —the OOMPH factor here is somewhere between the third/fourth Boys album and Blaze by Herman’s Hermits—I gotta say, I fricking LOVE Duncan Reid and this record. The guy just seems so dang cheerful, ya know? Whatever he sings about— having kids, getting old, getting drunk—he does it with such a easy wit and charm that I am quite unable to muster any symptoms of being grouchy or ill at ease, and quite unable to say that I wished it sounded more like The Boys, or less like The Boys, or anything of the sort. Like the smallest bowl of the three bears’ porridge, it sounds just right. The band is two girls and two guys, and they’re all good-looking, all dressed cool, all having fun—the cover art is cool, the photos are cool, the songs are cool—as far as i’m concerned, Duncan Reid is officially The Guy Who Made Being In Your Fifties Cool. Don’t laugh, asshole, that’ll come in handy some day. BEST SONG: “One Night in Rio” BEST SONG TITLE: “End of the World” because it solidifies the Peter Noone claim. FANTASTIC AMAZING TRIVIA FACT: The lyric sheet is a big hunk of paper, approximately 16”x12”, folded in thirds, and i’ve never encountered a lyric sheet of that shape before.
–norb (Wanda)