Remember a film called Cocktail from way back in the eighties? It was a Tom Cruise vehicle for making millions and, should you see it now, you will find it laughably cheesy. The soundtrack for it shifted loads of copies and can now be found easily in the bargain bins of any charity shop. The subject of this review - "Cocktail" - is a sort of tribute from Jacob Borshard. It is an oddball choice of material for a tribute but Jacob Borshard is from Texas and he will therefore have a pickup truck and a gun and should be a taken seriously.
"Nine Cocktails" is a clever song. Apparently it name checks all the songs on the original soundtrack whilst pretending to be a love song. Of course it is a love song to a girl called Daisy who is a clearly a girl from Texas - "…";a little bit crazy is alright" tipped us off - and you get the feeling that a happy ending is not really on the cards for that relationship. Words nearly failed us when we listened to his cover of "Kokomo". The Beach Boy's original was a crass piece of holiday camp sing along that we had blocked from our mental record collection a long time ago. It is tough to explain but this lightweight, ukulele lead take on it is actually a bit disturbing and more than a touch sarcastic - "…falling in love to the rhythm of a Beach Boys cover band", for example - whilst being earnest and respectful when the song does not actually deserve it. An unexpected pleasure for those of us with a sense of humour.
Oh, let us not forget the piece de resistance - the packaging. This time Wee Pop Records have given us not only a hand packaged and hand numbered 3 inch CD but also a foldout card (and autographed by Jacob Borshard as well!) map of the island of Kokomo. Our very own Bluesbunny record collector made a strange purring noise and disappeared back into his cupboard with it. Seriously though, besides being great pop music, these Wee Pop releases will surely become collector's items.