The Darling Buds: Pop Said... (Columbia)
Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 2 November 1989
BUILDING JOY and heartache out of tambourines and speedy, little guitar riffs, the Darling Buds' debut album is a tribute to 1978. They are not the first band to show a love of Blondie, the Buzzcocks and the Ramones, and consequently the Buds can be judged against contemporaries like Voice of the Beehive and the Primitives. But this quartet from the south of Wales triumphs over the limits of power pop because of Andrea Lewis's singing and the undeniability of the band s hooks.
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