Signed to the mighty Last Night From Glasgow label, this Glasgow-based act’s album is playful, energetic and fizzes with great hooks, catchy choruses and eccentric attitude.
Influences are all over the place, but there is a pure pop sensibility at work here, so plenty of call and response lines, BM might liken it to XTC and Bis having a party in Franz Ferdinand’s garage, all squiffy on alcopops, or something…
Someone or something in here has an ear for great pop songs, so over the course of the first few tracks ‘You’ve Got the Notion’, ‘Gideon Takes the Train’, there are expanses of sound which embrace art-rock (“laughing at poverty” from ‘Gideon’ takes its cue from Gang of Four vs Pulp) and disco…
It could become irritating but they get away with it – other tunes reference Art Brut and Blur (‘Living It, Loving It, Larging It’), while ‘Gold Plated, X-rated’ gives us a Hot Chip-esque electro workout…
There is change of course on track 6 (start of the “B-side”) to jittery indie guitar tropes, although the excellent synth gives it a slightly Sparks- referenced sound. The other B-side tracks give us more quite breathless high-speed ditties, they just don’t stop for a moment in these ten tracks.
Last track ‘You Need Love’ sounds more personal and it a bit more understated, and some Talking Heads-sounding chords, plus a great singalong chorus.
An excellent debut, and BM cannot wait to hear these tracks played live, it will be quite something.