15 track album that compiles all of Dolly Mixture’s 7″ and 12″ released between 1980 and 1984 on Chrysalis, Respond Records, Dead Good Dolly Platters and Cordelia Records. If you bought all five original singles – you’d have no change from 200 pounds. Dolly Mixture sit somewhere between the Shangri-La’s and the Go-Go’s which appeals to Indie kids, Punks and 60’s girl group fans. Dolly Mixture toured with the Undertones, played John Peel’s 40th birthday party, recorded a wealth of true pop classics, gave U2 a support-act leg-up, wrote songs for Lena Zavaroni and influenced the whole riot grrrl movement, but floored by on-the-road illness, decooled by Captain Sensible and dismissed as ‘the Slits meet the Nolans’ by a UK music industry too hung up on black leather hipness.

Our take: Remember This is the third vinyl reissue from the Dolly Mixture we’ve had in the past several years, following the reissue of their legendary Demonstration Tapes collection and Other Music, the compilation of outtakes and unreleased tracks Sealed Records released in 2019. Remember This collects Dolly Mixture’s singles, which showcase a different side of the band than the other two collections. What we hear here is the pop version of the Dolly Mixture… Dominic observed that they seem indebted to Brill Building pop on these tracks, and I also hear a retro sensibility that reminds me of the acts on Stiff Records around this same time. While there are a couple of punkier tracks like the highlight “Ernie Ball,” I find it interesting that these were the tracks Dolly Mixture presented to the public when songs like “He’s So Frisky” and “How Come You’re Such A Hit With The Boys, Jane?” remained on the cutting room floor. Monday morning quarterbacking aside, there are some great tunes here, like the aforementioned “Ernie Ball,” the effervescent “Everything and More,” and the instrumental medley that closes the album, on which the band rearranges melodies from their songs for piano and cello. It’s an essential piece of the Dolly Mixture puzzle, and I for one am happy to have all three recent reissues on my shelf.