Pinafore Days

by Dave Thompson The cracked window through which Stackridge gazed upon the pop scene of the mid-'70s offered one of the most idiosyncratic vistas enjoyed by any British band of the age, a blending of the softer rock moods that were then so thoroughly endemic, and a light orchestral gentility that would not truly find a commercial home for another two decades. Listening to Pinafore Days, in particular, one can see the infant High Llamas (to name but one) peeping out all over the place. Ten tracks chase Stackridge across an exquisite piece of prog-inflected pop. Occasionally -- the closing minutes of "The Last Plimsoll" -- the band's more adventurous ambitions get the better of its well-mannered moods; for the most part, however, Pinafore Days is a feast of lighthearted quirkiness, packed with little clips and clusters that bring to mind so many musical themes and schemes that one is no more surprised when "Spin Around the Room" transforms into a mock ragtime jam than when "The Galloping Gaucho" dances sideways across the music hall stage while a circus plays in the background. And then there's "Dangerous Bacon," a wonderfully buoyant pop stomp whose electric excitement is absolutely at odds with its frankly foreboding lyric. The sixth Stackridge album also, sadly, turned out to be the last, but whatever pressures and disappointments pushed the bandmembers over the edge are far from view on vinyl, allowing them the pleasure, at least, of bowing out with all their dignity intact.