A long time in the making, but the Fairways have finally released a record! *applause all around* This is pure, gentle pop in the vein of Sarah Records. Imagine an early Blueboy 7" with a pop hit on the A-side and two gentle acoustic songs on the flip, and that describes this perfectly. The cover even looks like an early Sarah single! Pure beauty.   --IndiePages

 

If you want a summery pop record that doesn’t feature a Hammond, then you need look no further than this little gem of a record from The Fairways. Somewhere between Belle and Sebastian and The Wannadies, it’s the sort of thing that you’d listen to on a long bike ride through the park, such is its gentle whimsy. All fizzy pop acoustics and harmonies, enough to make Stuart Murdoch blush, the record is sweet, unassuming, and lovely.   --Strange Fruit

 

The Fairways make music for sensitive souls lost in reveries about chances missed and kisses perfectly placed on a forehead. The Fairways are clutching a book to your heart and inhaling the perfume left on the pages. The Fairways are the sweet regrets that rise as the perfume fades and all that remains is the memory, and the book sits on the shelf and there's that moment held forever in your head and in your heart. The Fairways make reference to many great Pop groups of the past and the present and the future, which is the way of the world these days of course. Casting around for names I pull from the hat (today) The Field Mice, The Orchids and The Housemartins at their melodic best. And yes, Belle and Sebastian if you must, but clearly only Belle and Sebastian at their finest which is to say in fact not like Belle and Sebastian at all but more the spirit of the early Belle and Sebastian, which was an eternal flame of light cast by a dream that lives on in the Fairways and for that we should be thankful. The Fairways of course released a single some time ago on the very wonderful Matinée label, a label dedicated to unearthing both new bands and on breathing new life into long ignored marvels from the past.   --Tangents

 

I was very keen to hear The Fairways' Darling, Don't You Think? 7" as the title track was compared to The Sea Urchins and early Primal Scream. The latter comparison is promising enough, but I'm such a Sea Urchins fan that I've just gotta hear anything that's meant to sound like them! Listening to this 7", I dunno how much they actually sound like The Sea Urchins - they have the same kind of jangly guitar sound but they're more obviously pop than The Sea Urchins ever were. Although they don't sound as much like The Sea Urchins as I thought they might, I'm definitely not disappointed with this single! Another band The Fairways have been compared to is Blueboy, and This Is Farewell is rather Blueboy-ish. Nowhere To Go has a more folky, late 60s feel. I can highly recommend all three of these songs - really catchy stuff.   --Aquamarine

 

I have just discovered this new web phenomena of blogging. It is when these anal, self-important types peruse their favourite websites and pretty thoroughly trash them with enormous and great regularity. Things up for a kicking when they consider music criticism are grammar (thankfully they have not discovered my reviews), reviewing style and basically a comment on listed reviewers lack of intelligence is almost always in the mix. Most of the blogs are not all that insightful but it is a bit amusing to have these people perch themselves so far up their own arse and announce their pompousity to the entire world at whatever.com. Currently Pitchfork seems to stand as their favourite target. I am certain I would be relentlessly assailed for my lack of any musical content whatsoever in most of my reviews but then I have never claimed any knowledge about music. I write these reviews from the perspective that no one will ever read them and that thus gives me liberties that hacks in places such as Pitchfork and NME do not possess. Music is not a science anyhow. The last thing I need to read is a diagram of guitar solos or why exactly this record is not nearly as good as the record released in Bangladesh in 1977 that it recreates almost note for note. I know music that I like and music that I find to be crap. That is the extent of my expertise. The Fairways are most certainly not crap. They have the year's most eagerly anticipated album tucked away under their capes until July 14th at least, so we have had to make due with only a few compilation tracks and this one available 7" until then. Most or some of them used to be in Skypark. Skypark wore its Sarah records influences proudly and the Fairways continue that practice. Brent Fairways may be one of the most beautiful people on the planet and the grace and gentle nature with which he approaches music can't help but cheer you up. Unless of course you are a blogger. Only the A-side sounds like it has much of a future. It sounds like a fully fleshed out band number though I can't remember if they played it when I saw them live. The b-sides are two short acoustic numbers that make you instantly recall the Field Mice or Orchids at their prime. The perfect pre-lp release then because it is good enough to stand on its own and obscure enough to make you crave a full helping of Fairways goodness that is still to come on their debut album.   --Twee Kitten

 

Man, I love the Fairways and see ‘em live any chance I get! They released a 7” on the Matinée label called “Darling, Don’t You Think?” (which was also on their debut LP) with two acoustic unreleased b-sides. It’s essential, need I say more?   --Dagger