HMMM. well, you can wail over yer Kenickie splits and yer crap new Cardigans albums, yer Catatonic pop icons and any number of yer mainstream perfect popstresses, but in my world "Queen B" has been Number One for weeks already. Enraptured, lo-fi (but not in a lifestyle sense) and filled to the brim with the sort of melodies Gomez and Embrace couldn't manage between them in a thousand years. There's even a harmonica solo thrown in for good measure and a slight nod in the direction of New York's currently out-of-action Madder Rose.
Of course, Marine Research have a bit of a head start when it comes to creating wonderful, wonderful Sixties-style girl group music, since they are now formed mostly out of now-defunct international pop underground cheerleaders Heavenly. Still, any group whose debut B-side quotes Dexy's Midnight Runners, ("Yes, yes, yes!") is more than OK in my book. They rule. Everett True
To put it simply, Marine Research is a great new band that happens to have 4/5 of a band we once knew (and will forever remember) as Heavenly. With their new line-up comes new material that takes a more laid back approach, but the songs are still plenty packed with the pop charm that got them to the top in the first place. If I were on a desert island and had to pick one side of the 7", I'd probably go with "Queen B". it could just be that I really like songs that has a really prominent bass part. Whatever it might be, this song has such a charming, agreeable melody to it that it's found a permanent cubby hold inside my head. the pleasantly tinkly "Y.Y.U.B." gives us a taste of sweet pop with a grown-up taste. I'm so glad this 7" came out, and I really hope they come over here to whoop our collective asses in live performances across these amber fields of grain.
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Nightshift, September 98 issue
There is a land, not too far away, where children never grow old, where everyday is a picnic and where Blondie are always number one. It's a happy land, although the children sometimes get a little it sad because, well, there's a certain romance to being melancholy don't you think? So it's a big welcome back to Pete, Amelia, Rob, and Cathy, four fifths of Heavenly as were, still sounding as sweet as ever, freshly scrubbed and pretty as chocolate box kittens. Tim cannot wither them, nor dampen their love for innocent pop thrills, so 'Queen B' quite literally floats like a speckled pink feather over a meadow of buttercups. Amelia and Cathy flutter breathlessly over a wobbly guitar and a Casio keyboard doing a fair impersonation of the Lutein Bell; well they are Marine Research. But there's no disasters to report here. this is really quite lovely. Dale Kattack
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