Graham Reid | | 1 min read
In 2004 this Glaswegian indie-pop band was nominated for Britain's Mercury Prize and the following year voted Best Scottish Band Ever in the online magazine The List.
They are however an acquired taste: some hear their lighter songs as mannered. But over 11 previously acclaimed albums since 96, they've created a body of lyrically clever and literate work wrapped in catchy melodies.
And for Late Developers they draw from sources as diverse as Cat Stevens' folk (the emotionally pessimistic Will I Tell You a Secret), blue-eyed soul (the philosophical The Evening Star), McCartney's Wings (name-checked on the chipper sounding So in the Moment), dance (When You're Not With Me) and breezy yacht rock (the Caribbean warmth of the title track, the catchy I Don't Know What You See in Me).
There's very British nostalgia here on the fragile When We Were Very Young which brings to mind mature XTC: “I wish I could be content with the football scores. I wish I could be content with my daily chores, with my daily worship of the sublime . . . now we've got kids and dystopia”.
And what could be read as an advice column to a needy, flighty girl on When the Cynics Stare Back From the Wall: “When there's a man around, she flirts like a child. Darling, take a hint once and for all, stay away from them”.
The ironic and ambiguously titled Late Developers – see the cover image – is a sound entry in their singular, slightly idiosyncratic catalogue but doesn't stand alongside their best albums: TheBoy With Arab Strap (98), Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance (15) and their reflective A Bit of Previous of last year.
However this band – a highlight at 2015's Laneway and longtime Elsewhere favourites – is long past trying to win a new audience and this will be embraced by loyalists.
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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here
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