Frontman Nick Heyward later said, "It was a team effort, and everyone had their roles. My job was like the Paul McCartney one in the Beatles' Get Back film. The rest of the guys looked to me for direction, and I had to push them to turn these glorified jam sessions into three-minute pop songs."[5]
Pelican West was well received by contemporary critics. In the NME, Danny Baker commented that the album "contains some of the most summery, stylish and extravagantly repeatable music since Countdown to Ecstasy", concluding that "Haircut One Hundred have made the lightweight – there's no other kind – masterpiece of the decade."[16]Smash Hits reviewer David Hepworth was impressed by "the winning vocals, the sturdy, flexible rhythm section, creamy saxophone, the poignant, exhilarating and thoroughly British songs", adding, "Haircuts know just how far they can spin out their compositions and never resort to empty mannerisms."[13] Mike Nicholls of Record Mirror said that the group had "blossomed" from "a slight trio tentatively coming to terms with the groove... into a fully-fledged dance brigade whose abundance of ideas is matched only by their finesse."[10]
Retrospectively, Record Collector's Mark Elliott dubbed Pelican West "a true 80s classic that captures that 1982 zeitgeist with every breezy sax flourish and fey lyrical twist."[9] It was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2006), with critic David Nichols noting in an accompanying write-up that "Heyward's non-ironic love for pop shows through in every track."[17]
Track listing
Original album
All tracks are written by Nick Heyward, except "Love's Got Me in Triangles" by Nick Heyward and Les Nemes. In the U.S., tracks one and two were in reverse sequence.
In the 1983 Central TV science fiction series Luna - first series episode two "The Clunkman Cometh" - the villainous Clunkman accepts a copy of the album as payment for alien pet Jazzmine - he reckons the album will be valuable although he himself dislikes "classical music".[23]
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