Sicko

“Three Tea” / “Last Word” / “Steven” (Mutant Pop)
by Nik Rainey

Judging by the sleeve design and the clean-cut besuited guys in the cover photo, I thought Sicko‘d be another bunch o’ retrophiliacs treading that well-worn pre-Pepper groove. As it happens, Sicko prefer a different kind of regression-move along the lines of the guileless, childlike mock-innocence of Beat Happening (“Three Tea” is an undisguised tribute to Calvin, Bret and Heather), a world-view of picnics, petulance, and talking dogs with a slightly tougher sound, the way a six-year-old would imagine pop-punk to sound if you described it to him. I have a feeling that a whole record of this stuff would send me running for the St. Joseph’s, but three songs on a 45 is just the right dose of treacle to offset a music scene full of stale brimstone.