Popup – Love Triangle

• 26th Aug 2008

The last 18 months has really seen music from Scotland become a prominent force in the indie / alternative scene. Thanks mainly to Frightened Rabbit, Twilight Sad, Glasvegas and the now sadly defunct Aerogramme – these bands have made singing in their native tongue both proud and accessible. Popup are one of the new breed ready to carry this incandescent torch.

‘Art goes pop’ gets off the blocks with ‘love triangle’. The stripped down sound and downbeat lyrics leaves a dark underbelly of dragged through the mill indie and reached a crescendo of howls from the male/female vocals whilst previously being all wispy and gritty.

‘Saviour of Judas Mccade’ is dank number and weighing in at a hefty 5 minutes its their stereophonics ‘ traffic’.

At times I am struggling to comprehend the story that the songs are trying to paint, this is more than evident with ‘dreams like these’. The lyrics seem to be all over the place but the mellifluous guitar just about pulls the song through the patchy songsmithry.

The biggest drawback about this album is most of the tracks do not quite reach the pinnacle of the opener. At times there is a distinct feel of all things earnest and hand wringing that makes some of the songs feel quite tiresome to plough through. The reason why this sort of stuff works well with Frightened Rabbit is they make their sound distinctive even though they are working with the same format as Popup.