Seventeen are a secret – a supergroup from the halcyon days of the mid-1990’s with catchy pop songs that will disarm you. This charming intimacy will break hearts with bittersweet grittiness. Quiet. Unassuming. Understated. And fucking poignant.

Is is an estranged friend – and sometimes (once were/could or should have been) lover. You – like them; you both know who each other are – or rather were; once upon a time when you were bright and wild-eyed and bushy-tailed. This is life and its love – its love’s – catching you. It – life – catches up with you and ensnares you in its traps and makes – or tries – to make an adult out of you – whatever the fucking hell that is.

Deceptively simple. Endlessly complex. This – Seventeen’s recording – is a private late night conversation. Close friends hold hands disclosing painful confidences of temptation. Best served late at night and alone with whatever cures what ails ya. It is a lullaby rocking you gently to sleep with fragile whispers and tender awkward caresses. It is a slack blanket comforting you as you shiver with the vague hopes and regrets of despairing urbane inner-city innocence.

The record cover artwork deceives. This record will fuck you with the memory of a love so tender that it will haunt you and you will never forget it – no matter how hard you try; you simply cannot. Stark, raw and bare-boned with the pained beauty of a brutally honest poetry. Straightey – 180.

– written by Craig ‘Skull’ McPeade

Seventeen: Mandy Barron, Alison Galloway, Leo Mullins.

Recorded by Tony Dupé at Gerroa except Seven Ways recorded by Dan Griffin and originally appeared on the Cop It Sweet compilation. Mastered by Colin Wright. Artwork by Christina Lilley. Originally released on Blind Records (blind036)