If there's anything more fleetingly trendy than pop bands on the American music scene, it's those in Britain. Ever since the Beatles, British pop bands have never stopped proliferating. Though a few have gone on to durable careers, it seems that right now, in this post-alternative era, we are in another of those periods in which every week there is another new British band who is reputed to be the next big thing. But more likely than not they will be almost instantly forgotten as soon as the next one comes around. Fortunately, not too many of them make it across the ocean to the US, where we already have more than our share of forgettable trendy bands signed by record companies trying to duplicate last week's hit.

Once in a while, though, the British pop scene will produce some durable performers who go beyond the trend that brought them forth. This week we have an excellent example in Eddi Reader, the former lead vocalist in a short-lived group called Fairground Attraction, whose new album, the third under her own name, is entitled Candyfloss and Medicine.

Sadenia Reader was born into a working-class family in Glasgow, Scotland, where she grew up in a two-room apartment. When she got her first guitar as a gift for her tenth birthday she is reputed to have done her practicing in a cupboard. She busked on the streets of Glasgow, then went to Europe where she played and passed the hat to earn her way around her travels. After her return, she picked up her first significant gig as a backup vocalist for the New Wave band Gang of Four in the early 1980s. She moved to London after an American tour with that band, and started landing a lot of studio work, doing backup vocals for everything from Alison Moyet and Euryhthmics albums to TV commercials. In 1985, she formed Fairground Attraction with Mark E. Nevin, and by 1988 band had scored a Number One hit single in the UK and got some attention on this side of the Atlantic with their album First of a Million Kisses, with its laid back, somewhat jazzy, acoustic sound.

By the following year Fairground Attraction had dissolved and Ms. Reader had her share of personal difficulties with a marital breakup and a custody battle for her children, while trying to maintain a musical career. She let her career, which by this time also included acting for a BBC-TV production, take the back-seat to her family.

She began working with former Fairground Attraction drummer Roy Dodds and with two of the MacColl family, the offspring of Ewen MacColl and Peggy Seeger. Neil and Calum MacColl joined Reader to form a group The Patron Saints of Imperfection to do what was essentially the first Eddi Reader album called Mirmama, which so far as I know was not released in the US.

She came to the America to record her next record, released in 1994, called Eddi Reader with producer Greg Penny who had worked with k.d. lang, an influence that persists on this new album.

For Candyfloss and Medicine, Ms. Reader also collaborated with another fine British singer-songwriter Boo Hewerdine, who with the MacColls were part of an excellent, but also short-lived band called The Bible. The result is her finest recorded effort yet, a collection of intelligent songs performed in tasteful but musically intriguing arrangements, sometimes atmospheric, sometimes almost folky. Her voice is in fine form, and her admitted love of ballads and torch songs is evident. In some ways, she can sound like k.d. lang at her most elegant. The other key player on Candyfloss and Medicine is Teddy Borowiecki who plays keyboards, did the added arrangements including the strings, and co-produced the recording with Ms. Reader. Borowiecki also played on k.d. lang's first album.

This record was originally released in England in July of 1996, but for the American version, some extra material, which had been released as singles in the UK prior to the album's appearance, was included. Most of the songs are original, with Ms. Reader and the MacColls, Hewerdine and Borowiecki collaborating in various combinations, but they also do one old song from the Sixties, plus a traditional Scottish folk song.

The album begins, however, with an original piece based on Ms. Reader's memories of growing up in Scotland, Glasgow Star, a very attractive song in waltz time that shows some Celtic influence. <<>>

Of the track Candyfloss, Ms. Reader writes that the song "deals with being in an almost unbearable situation" with the title representing a sweetness contrasting with the "eerie guitar work of Neil MacColl." It's an interesting piece that also shows the more elegant side of Ms. Reader's vocals. <<>>

The other piece incorporated into the album's title, Medicine, is described as a song of forgiveness. It represents the album's more heavily-produced side, with a string section that seems a bit overbearing at times. <<>>

A straight-out love song stands as another of one of the recording's most appealing tracks, Rebel Angel. Sometimes the interesting dichotomy of the attractive melody with the underlying complexity reminds me of Jane Siberry. It's another highlight of this fine album. <<>>

One of the two covers tunes is If You Got a Minute, Baby. After hearing the 1964 song for the first time in many years, Ms. Reader said it brought back "some early baby memory" of her mother singing it in the kitchen. She and her band do a pleasant version, but the old pop tune is not up to the quality of the writing elsewhere on the album. <<>>

Eddi Reader and company harken pack to an earlier generation of British bands on the musical treatment of the original song Shall I Be Mother, which she describes as being about a woman who insisted on being a mother figure to a boyfriend, even after he leaves her. The worthwhile composition features some Beatlesque arrangement and recording touches. <<>>

One of my favorites on the album is Butterfly Jar, a really intriguing piece, both musically, with its vaguely exotic arrangement, and lyrically. It is described by Ms. Reader as being "about possession and how stupid we are." <<>>

The traditional piece on the album is the ancient Scottish folk song I Loved a Lass, which becomes I Loved a Lad. Though the underlying jig rhythm is maintained, Ms. Reader and her colleagues give it a dark, atmospheric, moody quality that very much transforms the song. The result is fascinating. <<>>

After being a member of one of those numerous short-lived British pop groups several years ago, Eddi Reader has created her finest album yet in Candyfloss and Medicine. Collaborating with some outstanding figures on the British music scene, including Neil and Calum MacColl and Boo Hewerdine, Ms. Reader creates an album that is both tasteful and musically intriguing. Her wistful vocals can take on the elegance of k.d. lang or sometimes resemble the distinctive character of Jane Siberry, while the backing musicians' arrangements are quite creative and yet very attractive. The result is an album that is definitely a class act and likely to win her many new fans now that it has been released in the US. There isn't a throwaway track on this generous CD.

The album's production and sound rank as quite good. There's a certain harkening back to the days of British studio creativity in the sonic treatment and mix, and most of it works very well. The album's production is outstanding, but as is typical of major-label pop CDs, audio compression was added in the mastering, robbing dynamic range for the sake of competitive loudness. The compression also undermines some of Ms. Reader's vocal performances.

While most British pop bands and their members prove to be flashes in the pan, Eddi Reader on Candyfloss and Medicine shows herself to be a significant artist capable of creating an outstanding and memorable album.

This is George Graham.

(c) Copyright 1997 George D. Graham. All rights reseved.