Limited Fanfare 2014 / Think Like A Key 2025
A record that almost didn’t happen gets polished and fleshed out with initial intent to shine its youthfulness across time.
Wasted Lines
Five years after their start, this ensemble effectively folded, and the collective’s mastermind Roger Houdaille was left alone to take stock of what went wrong – and he did so twice, in the studio and onstage. First, he gathered bits and pieces that fell through the cracks and released them as "Crack" – which felt rather cathartic – and then, also in 2013, witnessed a whole new line-up of his band flop in front of the audience whose ranks included a chanteuse named Lucia Perez. Introduction ensued and, in a few weeks, fresh songs followed, so the duo decamped to California, where they got to work alongside Fernando Perdomo, amassing more numbers, only to lose impetus when, upon the friends’ return to Florida, fantasies and financial reality clashed quite hard. As a result, the platter planned to sound lush turned into a lo-fi offering – but it finally got restored to its original glory and augmented with forgotten gems from the same period.
Despite having female voices at the fore previously and subsequently, no other album from this collective edged so close to embracing the ’60s girl-group sound as the songs of “Wasted Lines” would, cockiness and innocence conspiring to drive such catchy performances as “CheepCheep” or “Only The Clues” that contain a perfect pinch of grit in the well-cinched interplay of Houdaille’s bass and Perdomo’s drums which Perez’s chirpy vocals bounce off of. But if the latter, an opening track here, seems to promise a dirty rock ‘n’ roll route for the record to embark on, “Be There” proposes a different pastime, with handclaps aiding and abetting a glitterball groove and “oohs” enhancing the cymbals-accented harmonies. And while the twangy “Much Rooms” and “You Could Be Someone” go for understated sentiments, “Unstoppable” lives up to its title, swirling licks and simple beat leading to the “yeah yeah” on the refrain, “All The Time” and “It’s Too Late” opt for a ruminative flow and psychedelic effervescence, and “First Time” chases faux-orchestral merriment via heavier passages.
All these can’t prepare the listener for the serious “Unfair To Compare” that serves up raga in an utterly compelling manner, yet the delicately unplugged “Love Is” – that feels much perkier, and lasts longer, in an electric, glam-rock version, which sits among bonuses on this reissue – brings things to a close with a communal singalong. But whereas cassette-only “Rhyme Mind” and singles “Feelin’ It” and “Count on Me” augment the original set by adding brighter tunes to its occasionally subdued hues, three contemporary out-takes, including the buzzy “Baby Your Lame” (sic!), feel weaker than the rest – though one can marvel at how creative Roger and Lucia were for the brief period their team existed. And then, there are fascinating covers of Pete Ham’s “I Know That You Should” and Andy Pratt’s “So Fine (It’s Frightening)” – that, together with “My Days Are Numbered” from PATTO, formed the “#tbt” EP – to reveal how intrepid the little combo could be.
Still, stability beckoned, and another spell of the group’s lifespan lay just around the corner – the period which wouldn’t happen had “Wasted Lined” never been crossed.
****1/3
