Only Ones: Fools

The artwork for the Only Ones' (see here) fifth and final single, 1980's Fools, is so very charming. Check out the fifties table cloth backdrop, the awkward brackets ("featuring Peter and Pauline"), the sad duet shot plus the retro-sixties black and white back cover. The artwork and the fact that both tracks here are album tracks may be further proof of record label sabotage.


For all those problems, the songs remain strong. The duet with Pauline Murray (formerly of Penetration) is a high n' lonesome song which, although written by seventies country also-ran Johnny Duncan, sounds like what Leonard Cohen might have written, had he decamped to Nashville instead of New York. The B-side is a slightly more ska-flecked take on Perrett's usual gruff bleakness and at 1:46 it brings the singles's total length to 4:06. Brevity is beautiful.