This is sad. I have long admired Kirsty MacColl. I have had all four of the singles from “Kite” on CD3″ ever since they were released, over 20 years ago, but it remained until I found her second solo album just last month in the Harvest Records basement for a dollar, that I finally heard the album from whence they came.

Charisma Records | US | CD | 1989 | 91323-2

#5 • Kirsty MacColl: Kite US CD [1989]

1. Innocence
2. Free World
3. Mother’s Ruin
4. Days
5. No Victims
6. Fifteen Minutes
7. Don’t Come The Cowboy With Me Sonny Jim!
8. Tread Lightly
9. What Do Pretty Girls Do?
10. Dancing In Limbo
11. The End Of A Perfect Day
12. You And Me Baby
13. You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet, Baby
14. La Foret De Momosas
15. Complainte Pour Ste. Catherine

This was Kirsty’s coming out party after several years of performing backing vocals due to contract issues that bedeviled her when Stiff Records went belly up in 1986. As produced the her high profile husband at the time, Steve Lillywhite, “Kite” featured some equally high profile guest artists playing the music. Mel Gaynor of Simple Minds and Dave Palmer of The The shared drum duties. Johnny Marr and even lemon sucking Dave Gilmour from Pink You-Know-Who guested on guitar.

However, the center stage was reserved for Kirsty. She was hot off of her star turn with The Pogues on their hit “Fairytale Of New York” and she wrote the material [with some strategic kibbutzing from Marr] and the whole shebang is a showcase for her vocals. Sometimes strong, and sometimes airy, but never girly, her dulcet tones are often woven into a chorus of Kirstys with Ms. MacColl harmonizing in a hall of mirrors.

Most of the singles hit early in the mix and I’ve always been most impressed with the urgent and propulsive “Free World,” which tightly knits anti-Thatcher sentiment into a rolling arrangement that spills over into itself breathlessly for it’s scant 2:38. The Kinks cover “Days” was her biggest hit in the UK charts, but as covers of this tune go, I much prefer the psychedelic take Elvis Costello offered several years later on the “Bis And Ende Der Welt” OST.

Besides, by far the best cover here [and possibly of all time] is the should-have-been-a-single take on The Smiths “You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet, Baby” with Marr reprising his role capably on the song, which comes to vivid life for me with someone other than Morrissey crooning it. Instead, the cut from the “She’s Having A Baby” soundtrack was a B-side to her “Free World” single and appended to the US CD as a bonus track.

A sardonic highlight is the scathing “Fifteen Minutes;” an acid deconstruction of The Business… and by that I mean The Industry. She pulls no punches lyrically and the manner in which the second movement of the song transitions from acoustic folk into a full [albeit instrumental] dixieland jazz arrangement is spectacular.

One thing I haven’t been able to figure out is how the album was licensed in the US from her UK label Virgin on two different labels. There are 1989 CDs on both Charisma as well an I.R.S. Records. The I.R.S. connection may be because they released the “She’s Having A Baby” OST the previous year and they even went so far as to issue a promo 7″ of her magnificent Smiths cover; the only place where it got the justice that it deserved. Anyone out there have any clues?

Of course, there’s a DLX RM of this title, but since I have all of the singles, I’ll think the better of it and live with what I’ve got, but that recent CD edition of “Desperate Character,” her final “Tropical Brainstorm” as well as the DLX RM of “Titanic Days” are calling my name! With Kirsty’s sad demise, this is all we have to enjoy going forward.

CONCLUSION: enjoy

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