Wet Wet Wet: Popped In Souled Out - 1987
Clydebank band Wet Wet Wet had been around since 1982, but this was their first album.
The group, as the title suggests, were a mixture of pop and soul, with some rock hints in there with the occasional nod to the new wave they grew up listening to. The group suffered a bit from being dismissed as a teen pop outfit, but in many ways they were more than that. They wrote their songs as a group and they understood music history, often throwing in a reference to a classic from time past, either musically or lyrically.
They are a bit hard to categorise. Launching in the eighties, they use a bit of typical eighties backing, but they also use rock guitars and retrospective soul stylings. Vocalist Marti Pellow had a winning, lush soulful voice too. So much so that he could make an ordinary song sound better than it actually was.
The two singles, the sweet soul of Angel Eyes and the Motown-ish Sweet Little Mystery are both absolute perfect pieces of soul/pop, brilliantly executed and deserved hits. Angel Eyes references the Bacharach-David songs The Look Of Love and Walk On By.
I Don't Believe (Sonny's Letter), maybe surprisingly, namechecks Linton Kwesi Johnson's roots reggae anti-police brutality poem. I am sure the reference was lost on 95% of the people who bought this album.
The album's classic track, for me, has always been the magnificent, uplifting soul of Temptation, with its strong "don't waste my fucking spirit" line near the end. Pellow's voice is simply superb on this song. The line "all the tea in China" comes from Van Morrison's Tupelo Honey. "Peace, love and understanding" is a nod to Elvis Costello's What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love and Understanding.
World In Another is a lively number with a frantic bass line. Although this is a strong ending to the album you can't help but feel the best material was to be found on the first half of it.
