Fosca - Diary Of An AntibodyThe best dressed outcast of the year, Dickon Edwards, returns with the second album from Fosca, "Diary Of An Antibody". Clutching the complete works of Oscar Wilde to his bosom and wearing the latest collection of exclusive suits from the Oxfam Winter Catalogue, Dickon remains one of the most unique figures in British pop with a love of language, which has seen him recently compiling his words of the day on his world renowned internet diaries (or b-log's at they're called now in cyber space). "Diaries......." sees the band with yet another line-up change bringing in Kate Dornan on keyboards and recorder, to replace former musical genius Alex Sharkey, and with St Etienne producer Ian Catt at the helm it's Fosca's most cohesive release to date.
With an manifesto, which includes the house rules of "Running Shoes are for running in. Not for playing guitars in" and the decision to employ a drummer on purely aesthetic reasons, and a love of pop music from Dexy's Midnight Runners and Kent Northern Soul compilations through to the underground pop of Trembling Blue Stars and Scarlet's Well, Fosca provide the anti-thesis to bland worn out pop in 2002. Through a desperate poverty they have created their own eccentric world, which although English to the core, is steeped in the universal language of literate misfits and alien curmudgeons with bad teeth. "Wondering when you were ever taught how to wake up feeling bored" on "Secret Crush On the Third Trombone" before "Sharing the epitaph of a half eaten take away 'Seemed like a Fairly Good Idea At The Time'" on "Oh Well There's Always Reincarnation" walking a fine between someone who would be perfectly happy to hibernate over the Summer, yet at the same time could never imagine the world with "me".
Trying to understand the world over refilled coffee's in greasy spoon cafe's, with the knowledge that he'll never truly understand the machinations of the daily grind, but he will at least try and in the meantime offer tales with punch lines. Realizing that most people are too often content to tell stories with no discernible beginning, middle or end....and certainly never with any punch lines or point to them. "I'm On Your Side, a handclap fest admitting "those time you fed me cereal in bed, haven't been upstaged to date" before admitting that "we'll never be in love again", the "fits and starts and broken hearts" of "Letter Saint Christopher", the self confessed drag queen ballad "I Know I Have Been Happier" and the "fantasies of impossible latin tutors" on the extended version of former single "Supine On The Astroturf".
"With a top BTEC in Applied Self-doubt" it may take some time convincing him of his position as most important person in British Pop, but at least the position isn't held by the "classroom thicks who ruled the back of the bus". "Diaries Of An Antibody" is the most important pop album of 2002. And pop music, like Edward's white sock fetish, may drift in and out of favour, but it will always be around. Only this time it's pop music armed with a library card and a reading list.
Alex McCann
**********
Post your own Fosca reviews / comments on the Message Board
**********