The School

THE SCHOOL - Loveless Unbeliever

So, loveless unbelievers then; if you ask us they’re taking over the world and that, my friends, is not good news. Just look around, you know who they are. I’m just glad that you’re not one of them. I mean, seriously, you have to wonder at what’s happened to the world when the term ‘girl group’ conjures up images of a scouser in a tracksuit and a frump with her knockers exploding from the feeble embrace of a union flag. Don’cha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me? Well, not really love no. Thankfully Cardiff’s fashionably unfashionable The School, fronted by archetypal doe eyed girl-next-door Liz Hunt, are here to turn back the clock and show the nasty girls how it should be done.

The world of The School is uncomplicated and universal: boy meets girl, boy cheats on girl and girl writes a song about it. There’s no bling, nor ‘urban’ beats, not even a whiff of hard drugs on show here and the whole experience just oozes fifties hope and style. Musically it is Motown via Mari Wilson and the songs, resplendent with obligatory handclaps, were made to be sung in schoolyards by girls in polka dot dresses and dayglo bobbysox. Sociologically, it’s more Una Stubbs in Summer Holiday than Olivia in Grease; psychologically it’s Leader of The Pack on spacehoppers, and that, in our book at least, is all to the good.

For those familiar with The School, Loveless Unbeliever rounds up the tracks from the band’s hard to find earlier singles and pairs them off with a new study buddy, each as giddy and thrilling as their predecessor. Opening track ‘Let it Slip’ sets the scene as Liz, sugar sweet but deadly, coaxes her unfaithful lover to spill the beans (C’mon, c’mon ... ooh boy tell me) she smoulders to devastating effect. With one paramour left in a quivering wreck she’s quickly on the hunt for another fresh faced young lad, warning him off a rival who’ll never let him be her ‘Valentine’. Pretty soon though he’s scarpered only to be lamented as ‘The One Who Left Me,’ and it falls to the ‘Please Mr Postman’ stylings of ‘Hoping and Praying’ to make the sun shine again.

It takes a hard heart to resist the charms of The School, and when Liz asks to borrow a place on your shoulder because she can’t keep up her head with just two it’s one of the most sweetly sensual moments of the year. Let’s keep this simple though, if you’ve ever been in love or made daisy chains in the park on a hazy day then this is for you. Buy early for next term, School's most definitely in for summer.