Enchanting and vaguely disturbing

Nobody's Perfect, Smash Hits 29th May 1980 p.30. (c) BrianDamage at flickr.

THE DISTRACTIONS: Nobody's Perfect (Island). Where to begin? Soft but sometimes angry, bristling with graceful touches but almost clumsy, naive but bitter, rooted as much in psychedelic bubblegum as in Mancunian new musik, this enchanting and vaguely disturbing collection of vulnerable pop could go straight over the head of the casual listener. Which would be a tragedy as this could well be the most attractive and hardest wearing debut album since The Pretenders. Get the picture? (8 out of 10).

David Hepworth

Nice Smash Hits review of Nobody's Perfect by David Hepworth (now at The Word and blogging here) thanks to the archiving of the old music mag by Brian McCloskey (see his blog here). Other albums from the issue included those from Devo, Jah Wobble, Joan Armatrading and Paul McCartney (Nobody's Perfect getting a better rating than these, obviously). Only The Beat's I Just Can't Stop It was rated higher.

Albums, Smash Hits 29th May 1980 p.30. (c) BrianDamage at flickr.

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