Pretending to See the Future

"Secret" (Laura Watling)
"If You Leave" (Free Loan Investments)
"Tesla Girls" (F.K.A. Oedipusaurus Rex)

I bought Pretending to See the Future on a whim about 5 years ago when Shelflife Records had a moving sale (almost all CDs just one dollar! who could say no?) & while some tracks were certainly misses, there were others that were total hits.

Laura Watling's "Secret" has a soft, ethereal sound. Her vocals are sweet but unassuming & accented nicely by the little bleeps and bloops in each chorus. Shelflife has sold out of all their Laura stuff, but you can still get a few comps that Laura contributed to from Tonevendor. If you're a fan of Rose Melberg's solo stuff, I would recommend searching out Laura's full-length Early Morning Walk (actually, if anyone's looking for it, I have a second copy.)

The Free Loan Investments' version of "If You Leave" is sublime! The first time I heard it, I thought it was a touch too cutesy (I think because of the vocals), but the more I hear it, the more I love it. It's energetic and definitely brings a different kind of life to the song. Free Loan Investments have a couple of releases still available through Shelflife: The Last Dance 7" and Ever Been to Mexico? CD EP.

Full disclosure: I don't know a whole lot (read: anything) about F.K.A. Oedipusaurus Rex, but I do love their cover of "Tesla Girls." I'm not intimately familiar with OMD's back-catalogue, but in my mind, this is one of the songs on Pretending to See the Future that seems to stick a little closer to the original. F.K.A. Oedipusaurus Rex does have a MySpace where you can hear some more of their songs.

Pretending to See the Future is out of print and no longer available from Shelflife, but there are a few used copies lurking around on Amazon.

"Secret" (Laura Watling)
"If You Leave" (Free Loan Investments)
"Tesla Girls" (F.K.A. Oedipusaurus Rex)