Review:

on 2012-02-04 mikeyserpico Said:

DIY indie label founder, Bobby Mooney, has added his own band to the Fourtrak Records roster after a 17 year hiatus. With a motley selection of songs, The Pop Larkins (1991-1994) provides an indispensible guide to the Glaswegian quartet that is buried with indie pop hooks and Ritalin-fuelled riffs. Despite being contemporaries of chart-topping brethren such as Teenage Fanclub, the pre-millenial indie rockers were relatively unknown in their own homeland in the days before the blogosphere. With a notoriously irreverent attitude to gigging (i.e. they were frequently all too drunk to play) no doubt the occasional "bad gig" played a part in accelerating the band's short lifespan.

Favourite songs are spread across the album. 'Cool as a Cat' is a good starting point with its jangling guitars. Look out for 'Suffrajet' with its unashamed sing-along chorus ("You better stop, look and listen / cause you don't know what it is you're missing"), the towering guitar crescendo on 'Save Me' and 'False Start' which struts close to The Strokes. 'The Pub Song' is a cheery jaunt that skips and jumps with indie-pop nous. Other album highlights include the bashful guitar pop on 'Crashed' and the outro track 'Juggernaught'. The rest of the album is packed with perfectly pitched outsider pop with nod-wink references to the C86 minnows.

This album may never earn them a place in the great Scot pop pantheon, but The Pop Larkins have managed to produce an accomplished full-length debut album. In the current dour Scottish climate, let's hope that The Pop Larkins can lead an early-90s power pop revival.


Rating: 8/10