A barely-tangential preamble: I’ve been prodding Uncle Google and Auntie Wikipedia today in an effort to figure out exactly where Boy Mandeville got their name. Thus far my favourite guesses involve the absurd London 2012 mascots and Bernard Mandeville, a Dutch/English philosopher famous for ‘The Fable of the Bees’, a tweely-titled book containing a poem that was highly controversial in 1714 for elucidating economic concepts Adam Smith would reintroduce 75 years later. I have to hope that if one of these two guesses is correct it’s the iconoclastic and ahead-of-his-time philosopher rather than the tacky figurehead of an expensive and mostly unwanted public extravagance.
And so, on to Boy Mandeville themselves! This four-piece plays pleasant and upbeat indie-pop from the worldbeat school, i.e. they’re summery with twinkly guitars and unusual rhythms married to a traditional song structure. Popular purveyors of this form are Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot – both American bands, a fact which continues to surprise me as they, particularly Vampire Weekend, feel fundamentally English to me – as well as more experimental outfits like Yeasayer.
Anyway, Boy Mandeville aren’t derivative, or indeed American; their early demo EP is a bit more similar to the two former bands but for this release they’ve fleshed out their sound and identity and moved towards the sounds of summer typified by the Beach Boys school of songwriting. Both songs on this release are playful and reminiscent of lazy summer days. Music that’s this warm and cheerful is fundamentally seasonal and with the recent weather Britain has been enjoying the release of this record seems timely indeed.
Of the two tracks it’s b-side ‘Raisin Snake’ that I enjoy the most, thanks to its teasing guitar licks in the verse and breezy, floating chorus melody – not to mention the faintly Oberst-esque outburst towards the song’s crescendo. Lead track ‘Christina’ isn’t bad, but this odd ballad that’s half for a girl and half for a house doesn’t quite pique my fancy as much as ‘Raisin Snake’s melodic hooks. That said the stop-start rhythm of the verse has its own charm and I can see the tune being popular on dancefloors. Horses for courses, innit? Anyway, this 7″ is a distinctly British piece of summery pop and is well worth a listen.
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I can confirm that the name is from ‘Bernard Mandeville’. There is even a hint to the poem in an old song of ours. Entitled ‘I Am Amazed’ Here’s The verse:
“Boy looky looky at theat dustbin, I cant believe I’m here
Get a grip, Try saying it out of fear of a little tear my dear
tellin’ us your story for story-tellings sake
But the fable of bees you recite to the queen is not, It’s not sweet, No it’s not that sweet.”
Good guess work! Thanks for the kind review, love Jono, Jack, Brian and Mike. x
Thanks for the clarification, chaps! Look forward to hearing what you do next.
[...] readers of Nostalgia For Infinity may remember London’s Boy Mandeville from last June when I reviewed their single, Christina/Raisin Snake. The four-piece have now returned with a self-released 4-track EP, titled [...]