Sharing a record label with The Pains Of Being Pure Of Heart, Allo Darlin' occupy a similarly sunny indie-pop disposition, harking back to the heyday of twee-pop and the C86 movement's sounds. Led by Australian-born songwriter Elizabeth Morris, this London-basedquartet got their start with 'Henry Rollins Don't Dance' a splendid and most comical indie-pop missive that's sadly absent from this debut album. 'Woody Allen' fills the gap left by the band's absentee Black Flag ode, opening with the line "In the movie of our lives would Woody Allen write the screenplay?" before musing on whether Ingmar Bergman might be a more apt helmsman for a cinematic depiction of the narrator's relationship: "Max Von Sydow couldn't play you/I know you'd want him to/But Max Von Sydow couldn't play you". Following on is the disarmingly sweet 'Let's Go Swimming' a song that typifies this band's ability to transcend their potential for irritating archness. When Morris starts singing about a lake she and her beau would visit together, there comes the chorus: "And all the punks in Camden couldn't shout about it/And all the hipsters in Shoreditch could never style it/And all the bankers in Moorgate could never buy it for you", which somehow sounds rather touching for its romanticising roll call of London Boroughs - the sort of thing that was so popular within indie circles back in the Britpop-era. For all their feyness and knowing lyrics, Allo Darlin' are incredibly easy to fall for, and this eponymous debut surely represents one of the most charming examples of twee-pop in recent memory.
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