SONG OF THE DAY (#222)

'paper and glue,' by emma pollock

you can count me among the huge list of folks who cried more than a few tears when the delgados broke up back in 2005. they really were one of the truly underrated and under appreciated bands at the time of their amicable parting. i know those terms get thrown around a lot in the wake of band splits, but the delgados wrote some incredibly top tunes and a lot of people who should have heard of them simply haven't [i admit i was more than a little bit late to the party]. they inhabited a nice space somewhere between the flaming lips and belle & sebastian. even the great john peel once called them the 'best band in britain' [and this at the height of britpop, so, you know, that's really saying something]. so here's today's free advice: go back and discover the delgados back catalogue [five full albums--including the dave fridmann produced, 'the great eastern']. there's are untold numbers of gems in them there recordings.

emma pollack, now signed to 4ad, released her solo debut, 'watch the fireworks,' this past september and i finally had the opportunity to listen to it this weekend. it's just as electric as any delgados album, even if the electricity is turned down a few volts. in doing so she proves that dynamism is just as likely to be found in quiet corners as it is in amplifiers. ['watch the fireworks' has plenty of the former and the later.]

at her core, she's still a classic pop song writer in the truest sense, but she uses much cleverer chord changes and song structures than her contemporaries. [and dragging your husband former delgados drummer paul savage; your brother-in-law, jamie; and aerogramme bassist campbell macneil into the fray also helps.] and more importantly, she completely avoids all the quasi-nauseating female songwriter pop cliches that afflict the current brand of balladrixes [pianos, cutesy vocals, overly clever lyrics, etc, etc, etc.]. in short, she kicks significant amounts of a**.

hopefully 'watch the fireworks' is a portent of things to come. solo debuts just don't come better than this. go buy 'watch the fireworks.' now.

→ emma pollock: paper and glue
→ emma pollock: acid test
→ the delgados: all you need is hate
→ the delgados: is this all that i came for?