The ups and downs
Stephen Duffy — Wednesday Jones
(from the LP The Ups and Downs, 10/Virgin Records, 1985)
I ignored this album for literally years, even though I started liking Stephen Duffy during the Lilac Time era and when he was co-writing songs with Barenaked Ladies’ Steven Page. But The Ups and Downs (credited to Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy, Tin Tin being his short-lived synth-pop alter ego) kicks off with the execrable “Kiss Me,” one of the most annoying singles of the mid-’80s, and I had always assumed that the rest of the album was more of the same. And to be fair, most of it is, but “Wednesday Jones” is a more than worthwhile exception. A simple, brief, piano-based pop song with a twangy guitar solo thrown in for good measure, “Wednesday Jones” sounds directly inspired by Ray Davies’ late ’60s work and itself looks forward to the twee pop singles of five to ten years later, as well as the more delicate sound Duffy would pursue with the Lilac Time. There’s not much to it, but it’s a charming little tune.
–Stewart Mason
