The Housemartins - Sheep
The Housemartins - Hopelessly Devoted to Them

If the jangley pop topped with layers of harmony isn't enough to get you interested in The Housemartins, maybe these keywords from their Wikipedia page will:

Marxist politics; born-again Christianity; attacking his business partner with an axe; the future Fatboy Slim

The Housemartins spanned from 1983 to 1986, going through a few members in the process. (And yet, I'm just now discovering them.) The band's image changed throughout the years from an exciting live band with quirky songs to a more serious, Marxists-in-cardigans look but the lyrical content seems to stay consistantly focused. Curiously enough, none of the "Christian" tinged work made it onto the "Best of" album, but the Marxist influence is easy to find. What keeps this material from sounding trite or dated is great songwriting and musicianship. For me at least, it wouldn't matter much what they were singing about, the unabashedly poppy and soul-inspired songs could do it. And regardless of the lyrics' meaning, the style and phrasing is brilliant at times. There's a "coy, self-deprecation" that spreads across their work that keeps the Das Kapital references in check, too.

The best description comes perhaps as a metaphor from an anonymous messageboard: The Housemartins are the UK's Credence Clearwater Revival.

1) Associated with unpopular forms of 'root' rock. Like CCR played rootsy American tunes in an age of psychedlics, Housemartins played their 'skiffle' influenced tunes in an age of hair metal.

2) Their clothing was plain and simple. CCR: flannels. Housemartins: Cardigans

3) While their clothing perhaps made them out to seem conservative, their views were exactly the opposite. Take CCR's "Fortunate Son" and Housemartins "Sheep."

4) Both bands come from the backwoods: Northern California and Northern England. And both bands took swipes at the city folk.

5) People who might otherwise be embarrassed about liking American roots or Skiffle will admit to liking CCR or The Housemartins.

Curiously enough, their final bass player, Norman Cook, later changed his name to Fatboy Slim and made some good music videos.

And apparently the car dealer/partner-gone-bad had it coming when Hugh Whittaker attacked him with an axe.

(Buy The Best of The Housemartins at Amazon.)