Anyone
with a Casio and a sparkly hairclip can write a pretty popsong,
but nobody else is writing pretty popsongs quite like Pocketbooks.
Here's a paradox for you: gauche panache (and it half-rhymes too).
Pocketbooks begin with the awkward H&M charm of vital indiepop
and take it up town for a manicure and posh hairdo, borrowing some
of, say, Saint Etienne's glamour and self-assurance without ever
losing the girl-next-door friendliness of the Fat Tulips.
This is songwriting that knows what it's doing rather than hopes
for the best, beautifully arranged around irresistible girl/boy
singing and dramatic piano, borne up on a warm cherry-blossom
breeze by those soaring, weightless organ lines. But it's also
their sense of the specific that makes us warm to Pocketbooks: not
queueing just for a band, but for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, not losing
just a bus pass but an Oyster card. And it takes some artistry to
paint these everyday details of life in that special light that
makes them glimmer, makes them new.
The best pretty popsongs put stuff together in a modern way which
refreshes like summer rain and always makes you wonder why
nobody's done it before. It never matters why: it is just a bloody
fine thing that Pocketbooks are doing it now.
Pocketbooks are: Andy Hudson,
Emma Hall, Dan Chapman, Ben Dorning and Mark Reston.
Website/contact: www.pocketbooks.org.uk
/ www.myspace.com/pocketbooks
Sounds (download with
right-click and "save as...")
I'm Not Going Out (mp3 not available on vinyl)
Listen online on last.fm
(you don't need to sign up)
More photos:
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