I am a miserable bastard. Some people mistake this for a wry sense of humour, but in all honesty it is just my overall miserableness and bad attitude towards the world. Comes from being a disillusioned hippy. But occasionally I raise my head above the mire of my own Miltonesque self-pity, and when I do I want to hear something cheering yet quirky. Unfortunately, that which passes for cheering quirk (indie pop) is usually egregious to the point of embolism, strewn with the dog turds of sentimental priapism, tired riffs and charmless off the peg musicians.
Attic Lights: now, I should hate them. They’ve done a video with David Gest; they’ve done a completely unnecessary cover of ‘I Should Be So Good For You’ for the completely unnecessary remake of ‘Minder’; front man Kevin Sherry wears a stupid hat. All very bad things. But this Glasgow-based indie rock (read pop) band have a very good thing. Charm; lots of charm.
From opener ‘Never Sick Of The Sea’, it is abundantly clear what they do. Jangle jangle, thump thump thump. Usual indie fare. Noel O’Donnell puts the beat down pretty solidly and the guitars… do the job, but rising from these depths of sameyness like Godzilla in a mill pond comes the naïve cheerful voice of Kevin Sherry, professing undying love (‘never sick of you, never sick of the sea’) while being serenaded by a barbershop quartet of floppy fringed indie kids. It’s like a trendier version of the Proclaimers, or a modern day ELO. Which may not be to everyone’s taste. The happy doting runs right through ‘Never Bring You Down’, which has my favourite line of last year (‘hopelessly devoted… voting for the hopeless’) and a lovely doo wop chorus. Even when the strings bust in to ‘Wendy’, the mood keeps up.
I keep getting flashes of the Osmonds or Bay City Rollers – it’s that kind of guilty pleasure vibe going on. There are darker moments, like ‘Dark Eyes’ and ‘Winter On’, where a Ben Folds piano ladles on what comes dangerously close to sentiment. Lyrical darkness sneaks in too, with the ‘Dirty Thirst’ examining pre-problematic dipsomania and ‘God’ becoming a plea to a hard of hearing deity… but the tunes still remain up beat chipper.
Even the country fried whine of a steel guitar can’t bring the mood down – it’s almost as if they are untouchable, though with titles like ‘Nothing But Love’ and ‘Late Night Sunshine’ (a modern day tribute to ‘Romeo and Juliet’) it is unsurprising. These guys are happy and they know it.
I should hate it, I know I should hate it, but these guys sing about love undying and drunken despair with an equal amount of boy band optimism – they’re unshakeable. Not edgy – I don’t think they could even approach edginess without getting vertigo – but so nice that they could probably sing ‘Reign in Blood’ and make it sound sweet. Still not sure about the Minder theme though…
Popularity: 7% [?]
