The other day I found myself thinking about Adam Schlesinger, the Fountains of Wayne co-founder who died in 2020 from COVID-19 complications, and about all those bands from the 90s that should have meant more to more people. Marc Valentine comes from that same glorious power-pop tradition as the frontman of Last Great Dreamers, and his solo work has since found a home on Little Steven Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool Records.
Before I was properly besotted with Fountains of Wayne, I was already of the opinion that Last Great Dreamers were one of those British bands who should have been far bigger than they ever were. Even when they came back, it still felt like more people should have been paying attention. But Marc Valentine has kept going, kept writing, kept chasing the thing. As he says: “I’ve been in bands since I was thirteen,” says Marc, “and it’s been a long road of highs and lows – yet somehow the buzz of making new music never diminishes; in fact, it’s what drives me on. That’s what this new record is about – rock’n’roll survival.”
You can hear every word of that in “NY UAP,” which opens this set with what seems to be the most natural thing in the world: energy, melody, movement and a guitar solo that is so damn good it practically puts a grin on your face by force. Then “High In The Underground” arrives and confirms what some of us already suspected: Marc Valentine has no peer when it comes to hooks. This is music that understands the simple truth that three minutes, a big chorus and a bit of electricity can still change your day. “The Other Side” is another little lesson in that. A simple mastery of the pop song, really, but of course there is nothing simple about making it sound this easy.
What gives “Uncommon Side Effects” real depth, though, is that it never settles for being merely fizzy. “You Are The Jet” glistens with harmonies, but the ache in it matters just as much. “Loneliest Part” slows things down and lets the sadness sit right there in the middle of the room, while the synths add real colour and depth rather than dressing anything up. This is one of the reasons Valentine is so good at this stuff. He knows that sugar-rush pop works best when there is a bruise underneath it.
“Tiger On Glass” is a lovely example of that craft too, with the xylophone absolutely topping it off, and “Hanging On A Dream” has just a little bit of that boardwalk spirit about it. Maybe that is the Wicked Cool connection, maybe it is just the way Valentine writes, but there is a faint whiff of Springsteen there in the sense that rock’n’roll is being used as a way of surviving the day job, the bad luck and the knocks life hands out. “Half-Moon Pendant,” meanwhile, is a beautiful change of pace. Acoustic, tender, and handled with such assurance that you rather suspect he could have been a troubadour in another life.
Then “Temporary Buzz” kicks the door back open with handclaps and a real burst of energy, reminding you that this record is never far away from liftoff. And when “When The Light Has Gone” closes things out, there is something properly moving about it. The light, you feel, never really goes anywhere. Not if it’s in the songs. Not if it’s in the music. Not if you’ve still got the hunger to make records like this.
That, in the end, is what makes this album such a joy. It understands survival not as grim endurance, but as carrying on with style, tunes and heart intact. “Uncommon Side Effects” is, like everything else Marc Valentine does, “uncommonly brilliant”.
RATING 9/10
