Main Attraction

Personnel: Holly Golightly (vocals, guitar); Bruce (guitar, drums); Holly, Liam (guitar); Mohammed Ed Ghazi (drums).
By the time of her second solo release -- issued the same year Holly Golightly hung up her Thee Headcoatees go-go boots -- she had already established a separate identity from that lively garage rock combo. Sure, you'll still recognize that unmistakably cool, acerbic voice, but like her debut, The Good Things, Main Attraction falls into another genre altogether. Although it shares the pop smarts of Thee Headcoatees' best work (most of which consisted of covers or Billy Childish-penned originals), garage has been replaced by folk and country, and punk by soul and R&B. Meanwhile, the crazed horns on "If I Should Ever Leave" give that particular number a ska feel, while the languid psychedelia of "The Sign" and "Seashells" evokes the Paisley Underground of 1980s outfits like Rainy Day and Opal. To say that her sophomore effort, which was originally released in a limited edition by Germany's Teenage Kicks, represents a more "mature" Golightly -- which it does -- makes it sound as if she'd gone "soft," but nothing could be further from the truth. It's eclectic, to be sure, but slick or boring -- never. Main Attraction was reissued by the U.K.'s Damaged Goods in 2001. ~ Kathleen C. Fennessy