Close Lobsters

During their brief initial existence, the Scottish neo-psychedelic jangle pop outfit Close Lobsters issued just two full-length albums plus one EP, each of which stood among the strongest offerings from the late-'80s British indie landscape. Although aligned with the C-86 movement, the group demonstrated a stronger emphasis on melody across their acclaimed 1987 debut album Foxheads Stalk This Land. Following a 2012 reunion for a festival slot, the band resumed writing fresh material for the first time after their 1989 dissolution.

Paisley, the Scottish village where singer Andrew Burnett and drummer Stewart McFayden launched Close Lobsters in 1985, proved an apt birthplace given the ensemble's psychedelic leanings. Unable to choose between the names the Close and the Lobsters, the pair merged them into the band's distinctive, evocative moniker. Guitarists Tom Donnelly and Graeme Wilmington joined alongside bassist Robert Burnett, and early attention arrived when "Fire Station Towers" appeared on the influential New Musical Express cassette C-86 that later named an entire wave of post-punk guitar groups. The quintet's debut single "Going to Heaven to See If It Rains" surfaced in November 1986, followed in April 1987 by "Never Seen Before," whose B-side featured a superior re-recording of "Fire Station Towers" together with a cover of the Only Ones' "Wide Waterways."

Foxheads Stalk This Land reached stores in late 1987 and met with muted British press reaction amid waning enthusiasm for C-86 acts, yet its blend of jangle pop, hazy psychedelia, cryptic lyrics, and powerful guitar hooks built a devoted American college-radio audience. Early 1988 brought the single "Let's Make Some Plans," whose five strong tracks Enigma Records compiled that summer as the EP What Is There to Smile About?, an economical, hook-filled set widely regarded as the band's finest work. British listeners instead received the four-song Janice Long Session recorded in July 1986 and issued by Strange Fruit, which included the A-sides of the first two singles along with the B-side "Nothing Really Matters" and "Pathetic Trivia," later reworked as "Pathetique" for Foxheads Stalk This Land.

Headache Rhetoric, the second album, arrived in March 1989 and adopted a darker, slower-to-reveal psychedelic atmosphere reminiscent of Love's strongest recordings, ultimately delivering substantial impact after repeated listens. It barely registered in the U.K., however, and Enigma Records' mounting financial troubles prevented the label from exploiting the group's American cult following before the company folded later that year. After the spring 1989 EP Nature Thing, which paired original material with covers of Neil Young's "Hey Hey My My (Into the Black)" and Leonard Cohen's "Paper Thin Hotel," Close Lobsters disbanded without fanfare.

The original lineup reconvened in 2012 for the second Madrid Popfest plus concerts in Glasgow and Berlin. Positive reception led to a 2013 appearance at NYC Popfest and the release of the band's first new recording since 1989, the EP Kunstwerk in Spacetime on Shelflife. Completion of the return arrived in 2015 with Fire Records' career overview Firestation Towers: 1986-1989. Occasional singles followed, culminating in the 2020 third album Post Neo Anti: Arte Povera in the Forest of Symbols, again produced by John Rivers, who had helmed the debut more than three decades earlier.