Original Mirrors - Heart-Twango And Raw-Beat

Heart-Twango & Raw-Beat is the second and final album by the short-lived UK new wave band Original Mirrors. Released in 1981, it followed their self-titled debut from the previous year. The album features a more varied soundscape than its predecessor but received mixed reviews, with some critics noting a dated feel despite its high energy. Viewed as a product of its time, capturing the theatrical dance-rock sound of the early 1980s, some listeners have compared the sound to contemporaries like The Fixx, Ultravox, and Duran Duran. While energetic, some critics have found that the album hasn't aged well due to its 1980s production techniques. One reviewer from Album of The Year described the album as "a color-by-numbers attempt at New Wave," though others appreciated its danceable rhythms and prominent drums. Fans consider the band underrated and the album a "lost classic," feeling that it deserved more recognition at the time of its release.

Biography by Michael Sutton

Original Mirrors are mainly remembered for one reason: future Lightning Seeds leader Ian Broudie was in the band. The band formed in Liverpool, England, in 1980 after the collapse of vocalist Steve Allen's art rock group Deaf School in 1978. (Prior to the Original Mirrors, Broudie was a member of Big in Japan with Frankie Goes to Hollywood frontman Holly Johnson.) With Broudie on guitar, the band also featured Peter Kircher (drums), Jonathan Perkins (keyboards), and Phil Spalding (bass). Recalling glam and power pop, Original Mirrors didn't even resemble Broudie's later '60s-influenced work. The group's self-titled first album was released in 1980 with no commercial success; a similarly bleak fate met their next full-length, Heart Twango & Raw Beat, in 1981. The band then split up. Broudie became a producer for Echo & the Bunnymen and the Fall before joining vocalist Paul Simpson in Care in 1983 and then planting the Lightning Seeds in 1989. Bassist Phil Spalding died on February 5, 2023 at the age of 65.

Ripped to MP3

A1 - Heart, Twango and Raw Beat

A2 - Dancing With the Rebels

A3 - Teen Beat

A4 - When You're Young

A5 - Things to Come

B1 - Darling .... in London

B2 - Don't Cry Baby

B3 - Please Don't Wear Red

B4 - Swing Together

B5 - Time Has Come