Although it failed to register 0.0001 on the cultural Richter scale when first released in the early ’80s, Mr Nicely does a very pleasing line in faux-psych. The tracks that misfire sound like Soft Cell outtakes or Erasure on ketamine, and any attempt to emulate ’60s production trickery falls flat on its Fairlight. The best of it, though, belongs with the pantheon of great post-psychedelica, like Prince’s Around The World In A Day album, while “Beverly” looks back to Scott Walker and forward to The Beloved and Ibiza bliss.
The one undisputed classic here, “HillyFields”, commemorates the fact that the centre of the universe is a small piece of parkland in south London.
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