By Mita Tate
What happens when five bored teen girls from Nashville decide to start a psych-pop band? While most people might immediately assume another disaster of Shaggs-proportions, unlike The Wiggin Sisters, Mindy Dalton, Judi Griffith, Lana Napier, Pam Stephens and Jean Williams were actually incredibly talented and managed to create one of the best unheard albums of all time. Sadly, Livin’ Love is the only album that Feminine Complex released in their short lifespan. As the members grew older and began life after high school, they grew apart, never to record together again.
While Livin’ Love covers a diverse selection of genres, including trippy acid rock anthems, soulful jazz, Bardot-esque French pop and even some gospel for good measure, Feminine Complex truly shined like no other when they slowed things down. The music takes on a fuzzed-out, ethereal quality on several tracks, adding to the spookiness of it all. Not spooky in the way of Marilyn Manson but rather in the way of the timeless classics of Roy Orbison and The Shangri-Las.
Lead singer Mindy Dalton’s haunting, soulful vocals make Feminine Complex stand out from other garage rock groups of the 1960s and even today. Dalton’s introspective lyrics are actually better than most current mainstream acts, as well as many underground.
The simple vocal harmony intertwined with the subtle horns on “Are You Lonesome Like Me?” is truly haunting. One can’t even imagine what would have occurred had these girls continued to grow and make music together.
After TeenBeat Records re-released Livin’ Love in 1996, fans of the obscure band no longer had to pay up to a month’s salary on e-Bay for the album. Some of the band’s work was also featured in several movies, including Alex Cox’s The Winner.
With their newfound success and popularity, came rumors that Feminine Complex was actually a hoax and not the work of five bored Nashville teens. To settle these rumors, the band actually reunited briefly in 1997. While the reunion was not a musical one, the influence of Livin’ Love lives on in many indie and psych-pop acts who regard the group as not only trend-setters, but as the creators of truly complex feminine music.
The Chronicle gives ´Livin´ Love´, by Feminine Complex five out of five stars.