yep - it's been 10 years coming, and it's out today - 7th October - Luke Haines', John Mellencamp's and Simon Cowell's birthday!
Second Empire and
Dance With A Stranger are anthems for a bookish overachiever making the most
of his best man's yacht for the after party… and then burning it down in the
water. Each lyric is a slogan,
tattooed in Helvetica, to the sounds of a dark disco Domino Dancing... if these tunes were the John Hughes soundtrack that
Electronic and BEF never made Andie would have left with Duckie.
Formed as teenagers in
early 90s on Long Island, My Favorite were a critically acclaimed enigmatic
indiepop group during the first era of their career, beginning with their debut
single The Last New Wave Record 7” in
1994 through to 2003’s The Happiest Days
Of Our Lives double LP. Aside from a cult of devoted fans in America,
Sweden and Japan, My Favorite also had fans amongst the best of their peers,
leading to invitations to open for Belle & Sebastian and The Magnetic
Fields, as well as being chosen by Morrissey for his pre-concert mix in 2005.
At the same time they were influencing the next wave of indie and alternative
bands; members of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and The Drums are on the
record as fans.
The group turned the
haunted suburbs of Long Island into an array of heavenly pop hits, which in
some tangent universe might have landed them on Top Of The Pops, or the cover
of the NME. Monsters, misfits, and the ghosts of dead teenagers populated
songwriter Michael Grace Jr’s atmospheric short stories about youth and love
squandered in squalor. From synthpop to punk, to the echoes of reggae and goth,
My Favorite were chameleons, pop artists who borrowed and deconstructed the
marginalized music of the 80s to frame a kind of End Of The Century last stand
against the coming constructs of the digital age.
And now, through chance,
design and metaphysical obligation, My Favorite have returned.
The picture disc is
illustrated by Jeff Mellin
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