This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Minders master Martyn Leaper moved in his teens from England to America, where he became involved with the retro-pop music collective Elephant 6. That tells you almost everything you need to know about Golden Street, the third studio album from the band Leaper leads with his keyboardist wife Rebecca Cole.
Golden Street’s 13 songs flaunt their dual musical citizenship and ’60s birthplace, combining equal amounts of XTC’s post-grad pop, The Kinks’ bittersweet beauty and The Beatles’ deceivingly simple craftsmanship — and then covering the whole mess with a dusty layer of Guided By Voices’ fuzzy, garage-band grit. With tight, fat-free tunes, plenty of ramshackle charm and plummy vocals that sound like a duet between Robert Pollard and Andy Partridge, The Minders don’t sound like they’re quite from anywhere — but they can fit in everywhere.
