Love. It’s a simple enough word, and a simple enough concept one would think. Mankind and his feeble emotions have proved though its something worth living over. It's worth dying for it, lying for it and even sighing for it. It is one of those few things that everyone can relate to in at least the most basic way, and no one does it as vividly than the lovelorn young man. Songs like Love Will Tear Us Apart, Woman and even that chorus to College love Yellow, all long to reach out and talk to that foolish side of you that stares into the distance and calls out over balconies. Oxford's new band of coo-ing romantic's are promising to enter your head and setting up their tear-stained picnic there. Their music being delectable and simple but as full as it need be. The 3-piece bring this magic onto CD fairly effortlessly, letting the songs glimmer.
Boat Trip is not Theremin's strongest song, but it enlightens us very quickly to the band's touch. Gentle vocals float over a bass like The Cure sleeping in daffodils until a polite refrain greets us as a chorus: "You say every little word like a bird that’s sitting on your broken shoulder". The song passes by like the lyric's, cast away but knowing that they need to be listened to by whoever needs to hear it. It is not a special track, I think it was just one that needed to be written…
In The Barn is a much different affair. It reminds me of….(ahem)….a party in the back of a Transit van on its way to Butlin's with The Sunday's and Neil Young jamming in the back! It bounces along its path, full of a charisma that sounds as if its been recently slighted, pastel-like Country blaring from its stereo as it wishes to in the arms of its lover. "Oh my God, it's 6 O'clock and I'm waking in the morning, without you" perfectly complemented with a near desperate "Why can't I dream with you? Why can't I fuck with you?". The songs breezy pop is meshed sublimely with dazed, rose-tinted voice… like Thom Yorke sitting in the sun, writing poetry under an apple tree.
Finally we have my favourite, A Song For You. This is the band at there best, producing a song that should grace every music lover's (and just plain lovers) shelf. Now we find the band on a windswept beach - rain trickling down - with chopping waves of foaming distortion lapping over a perfectly forlorn falsetto. Think of The Velvet Underground and Geneva holding hands, barefoot on the beach, looking out to sea. "And it's you I want…It's you"….
I love this band very much. They seem to love me very much, that is probably why I like them so. But what is better is the knowledge that this is only the beginning, and not even all their current best songs are here. If you are not feeling - or can never feel like - warming to a fireside with your love clung round you, maybe this brand of yellow petaled pop won't agree with you. Just be sure that if you do, this band may well be soon sound tracking those very moments…
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8Joss Albert's Score