Two EP’s side by side
on the shelves, Hot Mess,
a five song disc from Dodie,
and Blinded By Science, another
five song number from 80’s
keyboard pop god Thomas Dolby.
Released 40 years apart
from each other, the Dolby
13 years before Dodie was born,
they are, nevertheless, good company.
It would not surprise me
if Dolby was a fan of hers
or if Dodie was a fan of his.
They’re both English,
they’re both keen on melody,
they both have a sense of humor
but can also be deadly serious,
they both write songs with
sophisticated structures,
they’re both accomplished players.
Dodie’s acoustic, Dolby’s electronic,
Dodie is intensely quiet, Dolby
can be, as the song says, hyperactive.
Dodie’s tunes can make you cry,
and Dolby’s songs can, too, because
while “Blinded Me With Science”
is ultimately a hoot, “One of Our
Submarines” has a melancholy
infusion, as do the three other
tunes on this Dolby EP, all of which
appear in slightly different versions
on his Golden Age of Wireless
debut, “Windpower,” “Airwaves,” and
“Flying North.” A hard core fan,
I have every Thomas Dolby album
on CD, but only this odd thing on vinyl,
a gift from a friend who found it in
some used bin and knew I would love it,
even though its original owner, KIM,
has her name scribbled on the cover
in large blue permanent marker.
And this is the only Dodie in my
collection as well, a situation
I would very much like to remedy.
In 2025, she released an album called
Not For Lack of Trying. It seems to me,
that here in 2026, before the year
gets away from me, before I become
overwhelmed by new releases,
I should try my best to track down
Not For Lack of Trying.
Notes on the vinyl editions:
- Hot Mess, Doddleoddle Records, 2022, clear vinyl.
- Blinded By Science, Capital Records, 1982, black vinyl.
In case you don’t already know: I’m listening to almost everything in my vinyl collection, A to Z, and writing a long skinny poem-like-thing in response for each artist, and on a few occasions, writing a long skinny poem-like-thing in response to more than one artist. As a poet and a student of poetry, I understand that these things look like poems, but they don’t really sound much like poetry, hence, I call them “poem-like-things.” I’ll admit that they’re just long, skinny essays that veer every now and then into the poetic or lyric.
michael jarmer 