Ida Maria
Drive Away My Heart

It’s quite the measure of where you’re at as a band when a song about the darkest year of your life is as FM-friendly as this, Norwegian quartet Ida Maria’s new single.

Ida’s band have a Strokes-like savvy around a pop hook, it’s just a shame the hooks in question aren’t up to all that much in this instance, lacking as they do the peppy charms of last single ‘Oh My God’. Actually you might want to temper that Strokes reference a bit; ‘Drive Away My Heart’ is more the sound of Casablancas’ crew jamming on a schooner in the Med with Rod Stewart popping out of his leopardskin undergarments.

Not exactly cool, then, but it does at least express a willingness to bend expectations slightly with its false crescendos and stifling minor chord descents, raising it a few notches above the eager-to-please inconsequentiality of the horrid glut of industry-backed indie pop (they’ve played the Levi’s One To Watch tour recently) we’re being subjected to at the moment.