Another free download from Fortuna Pop! and this time a real blast from the past, Airport Girls, Honey I'm An Artist is one of my favourite pop albums from a very important part in my life musically, I remember discovering Airport Girl supporting Cinerama and playing alongside Solar Plexus (who became Saint Joan and now Ellen Mary McGee) at the now rarely used venue, The Boat Club in Nottingham.
The monstrously long titled track The Foolishness That We Create Through Love Is The Closest We Come To Greatness was always one of the highlights, starting off with an Idlewild esque riff before full on exploding into Dexys style pop and not sounding a second too long despite its length of just over 6 minutes.
The only sad thing is that my actual favourite Airport Girl song, and the original Bside to this single is not included, that of Striking Out On Your Own. Still it appears that the singles still available to buy on the website, it would indeed be money well spent. A welcome reminder of my indiepop past.
"Like Belle & Sebastian meet Denim, which is the stuff of genius"
(Melody Maker)
"Indiepop doesn’t come up with many epics. The three-minute perfect pop song ideal still seems to be held in high regard, long after commercial producers have padded the norm out to four and a half with reprises, extra choruses, key change, instrumental parts and longer intros (or it seems to be anyway, there’s probably an interesting graph waiting to be made of song length on number one albums over time)
And rightly so! Brevity is important in music, so explaining the brilliance of The Foolishness that We Create Through Love Is The Closest We Come To Greatness is tricky, as it clocks in at just over six minutes. I suppose part of it is the spontaneity in the lyrics that seems to force you onto the dance floor. “Just when I thought the chance was missed… well that’s when we kissed” being the moment that the song is hinged around. It just demands you dance to it.
The Foolishness… is also important for other reasons. It was unashamedly indiepop at a time when the genre was scattered all over the place and hard to find. For someone in the early days of discovering the genre at the time, this song seemed to say that it wasn’t all over. Dancing to Airport Girl at Indietracks in 2008 was proof of that. So, um, I suppose if I have to explain it using the three-minute perfect pop song ideal, this is two perfect popsongs. Back to back. In the same song.
It saves you the bother of having to get up to put the stylus back to the start every other time too."
Posted by
ben
at
23:49on Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Northern Portrait - The Fallen Aristocracy - Napoleon Sweetheart This trio of Danes have been causing quite a stir amongst the Matinee Recordings fanbase with their straight out of the 80's pop. If Sarah Records where still alive these would be the jewels in the crown without a doubt. Barely 18 months old and two top selling Matinee singles means that you should put away your Smiths best of (for now) and get a taste of Northern Portrait.
Last FM:Northern Portrait is a indie pop group from Copenhagen, Denmark. The band was founded in July 2007. The band lists a few 80’s bands among the influences (The Smiths, Echo And The Bunnymen and The Housemartins) and has recorded two EPs on the Matinée label, who signed them after just a few weeks after they uploaded their first demos on Myspace. An album is on the way.
Bubblegum Lemonade - Susan's in the Sky Bubblegum Lemonade are a bit more me, the lead track off previous EP Ten Years Younger has been one of my most played tracks this year. Again their perfect mix of shoegaze guitars and catchy pop combine to great effect on this lovely four track EP. Susan in the Sky is handy clappy good, Surfing USB is as clever as the title would suggest, Just Like You, rock'n'roll and Holocaust just more of the same great stuff. A pop delight.
Last FM: Bubblegum Lemonade is a 60’s influenced 12-string Indie-Pop band based in Glasgow, Scotland. Their fondness of the Byrds and the Mary Chain comes across on such songs as “The Tomorrow People” and “Unsafe At Any Speed.”
I never realised this existed, there's a whole trove of indie pop treasueres to be discovered.,may i recommend the following as a small introduction to a great label.
