Hailed by many as one of the most authentic sounding mod acts among the mostly punky/Jam influenced fellow scenesters, back then, Small Hours were the closest you could get to the northern soul/Stax roots.
Hearing some of the tracks like The Kid, Seen It All Before or Watch This Space, I was wondering if I’m the only one who’s hearing an unexpected early-Springsteen overtones, coming from the mutual soulful influences, also heard in the early stuff of Costello, Graham Parker or Joe Jackson, so I felt kinda relieved when I saw the reproduction of an article titled “the sixties soul meets Springsteen”.
Besides these, one of the highlights might be the demo version of Underground, showing that, even though they hadn’t always shared the same approach, the best mod bands’ concepts must meet somewhere along the line.
Midnight To Six, as it’s title clearly implies, is a northern soul all-nighter anthem, while Business In Town is another Hammond organ-ized blue-eyed stomper and the unreleased single Can’t Do Without You, though not abandoning the initial soulful concept, could’ve done wonders on the early ’80s charts.
Though they do deserve a recognition like that even without anyone mentioning, the fact that The Hives cite them as “one of their fave U.K. acts ever” could be useful for the reevaluation of the Small Hours’ recorded legacy.
[Released by Detour 2003]
Be the first to comment