The brilliant new EPs from Northern Portrait, The Electric Pop Group, Strawberry Whiplash and Bubblegum Lemonade are collecting great reviews, so we’ve compiled some recent quotes below. Click on the catalog numbers for complete release details including full reviews and soundclips. These four should be part of any POP! collection already but if not head straight to the order page and we’ll gladly hook you up.
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Northern Portrait – The Fallen Aristocracy CDEP
“The Fallen Aristocracy might just be the bittersweet, jangly guitar-pop album Smiths fans have been looking for since 1987. Where so many have tried to recreate all the tensions that made The Smiths’ songs timeless with little avail, Northern Portrait comes pretty close to finding the band’s secret formula.” —Aversion.com
“Northern Portrait are a brand new band from Copenhagen and are signed to that treasure chest of jangle pop Matinée Recordings. ‘Crazy’ is the lead song from their debut ‘The Fallen Aristocracy’ EP and if it could be bottled you’d have a fortune-making de facto happy pill on your hands.” —mp3hugger
“The title track is not just Northern Portrait’s strongest effort, but an instant classic. Taking its cue from Pulp’s retro pop grandeur, ‘The Fallen Aristocracy’ is eloquent and nervy and melodramatic, combining louche degradation with the slyly insistent pop of early 80s Factory. If they can build on this classic, then their debut album will be an essential purchase.” —Fire Escape Talking
“All four songs could have been the leading single-tracks here. I love everything about this EP—the sound, the guitars, the melodies, the vocals, the Smiths-influenced cover-art… everything. The opening track ‘Crazy’ is a modern pop classic.” —Eardrums
“I love the Northern Portrait ‘Fallen Aristocracy’ EP on Matinée. It sounds delicious. Uplifting, cascading guitars. You know the score. [They] remind me of the likes of Windmills and East Village and High Five and Hurrah! All those things that should mean a lot.” —Unpopular
“An auspicious and frustratingly brief debut–here’s to more!” —Press Play, Record
“The first few guitar riffs of Northern Portrait’s single ‘Crazy,’ sold me. The Danish group reminds me a lot of the Trash Can Sinatras… If you love melodious guitar action with brooding vocals (think Morrissey), you’ll love Northern Portrait!” —Spramp
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The Electric Pop Group – Sunrise CDEP
“It’s a joy to have [this] EP in my hands. Everything is in the right place, the monotone vocals, the beautiful guitars that allow the band to sound like the best bits of indiepop and shoegaze rolled into one. On ‘Summer’s Day’ we start with a gentle acoustic strum and it really does sound like the best moments of Sarah Records condensed into a wonderfully fragile 3 minutes and 40 odd seconds of pop heaven. Lovely stuff.” —Indie-mp3.co.uk
“Sunrise EP is the band’s first release on Matinée, and they do not disappoint this time either. Four jangly popsongs with everything we have learnt to love about The Electric Pop Group.” —Eardrums
“Then there’s third track, ‘Summer’s Day’: it would be possible, we suppose, to listen to it and not think of Brighter. What is laudable, however, is that ‘Summer’s Day’ is a hale, rather than a pale, imitation: it could almost be from Brighter’s ‘Laurel’ sessions at the White House the best part of 20 years ago, the lyrical wistfulness and world-worn sentiment ice-wrapped by acoustic guitars. It is, honestly, delish, and the ‘Sunrise’ EP is part of the Matinée renaissance.” —In Love With These Times, In Spite Of These Times
“The Electric Pop Group’s ‘Sunrise’ EP treads the type of ground that would have likely secured them a spot on Sarah Records in a different time. ‘This Is The Town’ grabs me the same way ‘Walk Away’ did just months ago, which means it won’t be letting go for a while.” —Skatterbrain
“I Could See The Lights picks up from where their debut LP left off – if anything the songs shimmers and glistens even more than their early recordings – recalling the very best of Sarah Records.” —Indie-mp3.co.uk
“A lovely mix of retro, ethereal strumming matched by airy and very cute lead vocals.” —Spramp
“I Could See the Lights establishes The Electric Pop Group as a sunny-minded indie pop band with all the classical influences.” —Aversion.com
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Strawberry Whiplash – Who’s In Your Dreams CDEP
“Hazy, dreamlike vocals are backed by a wall of static guitars in this up-lifiting and joyous release from Glasgow’s Strawberry Whiplash. It’s an EP which is easy to love with its hand claps, synths and simple harmonies all forming winding round echoing, reverberating guitars in these hip shaking gems, whilst the simple, almost childlike ‘My Day Today’ is pure pop perfection. Lovely stuff!” —Is This Music?
“Strawberry Whiplash sounds exactly like what you think it should taste like. Sugary layers echo with tambourine, electric organ and sing-song refrains of ba-da-ba. The EP evokes the innocent spirit of 1960s pop, and yet the whole thing’s awash in a sea of fuzzy guitars and minimalist, reverb-heavy drums a la The Jesus and Mary Chain. Clocking in at 11 minutes, there’s no room for filler. The songs are all A-sides.” —Ink
“Who’s In Your Dreams has echoes of the fuzzed up bands of Scotland’s past such as The Jesus and Mary Chain, Meat Whiplash and The Shop Assistants. The jangle pop chords of Jesse Garon are evident on ‘It Rains On Other Planets’. On the EP’s other two tracks you can clearly hear elements of girl fronted jangle pop bands of the era and on the twee-ish ‘Factory Girl’ singer Sandra sounds uncannily like The Shoppies Alex Taylor. This is an EP which wears its influences on its sleeve as well as being coming from the heart. Fuzzin’ well buy it!” —Indie-mp3.co.uk
“Who’s In Your Dreams is just a happy, gargling stream of revivalist ba-ba-ba’s, of gargantuan guitar melodies, of Bubblegum Splash-style thudding drum n’ bass, which peaks with the marvelous conceit where they use the ba-ba-ba’s, instead of the guitars, to do the melody in the break. But the real trick, of course, will be if Strawberry Whiplash can follow up this rather spiffing start with something else just as admirable. If they can, then there’s gonna be drama.” —In Love With These Times, In Spite Of These Times
“Who’s in Your Dreams is another serving of fun, uncomplicated pop. Sandra’s dreamy, Lulu-lite vocal style matches perfectly with Laz’s easy melodies, and she piles on the doo-doo-doos and bah-bah-bahs like whipped cream and cherries on his buzzy/jangly arrangements.” —Aversion.com
“Glasgow continues to churn out a constant stream of great sounding bands and for that we are all grateful. Strawberry Whiplash consists of just two people. Sandra sings and Laz plays the instruments. And together they take noise pop to a whole new level.” —Burning World
“Four little jewels that’ll stick with you all this summer. I know it’s only February, but their ‘feedback wall of sunshine sound’ and a song like ‘It Rains On Other Planets’ will disperse winter clouds and make flowers grow around your steps. Ten seconds were enough for me to fall head over heels.” —A Hipster’s Progress
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Bubblegum Lemonade – Ten Years Younger CDEP
“Bubblegum Lemonade’s ‘Ten Years Younger’ EP contains the kind of perfect pop songs, full of Rickenbacker jangle and unforgettable melodies, that you feel like they’ve been around for ever; not in a ‘heard it all before’ way, but rather from honing in on those essential elements that make pop music beautiful. Being from Glasgow comparisons to Jesus and Mary Chain and 53rd and 3rd are obvious and not unfounded, but this music seems to go beyond that and embrace the whole history of pop music in four perfectly formed and completely irresistible pop songs.” —Among The Aisles
“Ten Years Younger is wedged somewhere between the Smiths’ early recordings and the Velvet Underground’s ‘Loaded’, taking the best of both worlds. ‘Unsafe at Any Speed’ is a fuzz-drenched cocktail of surf music with a Dandy Warhol lemon put in for flavor.” —PopMatters
“Bubblegum Lemonade easily brings to mind the best of the Byrds, the mystical pop of the Velvet Underground and on tracks like ‘Unsafe At Any Speed’, the heavy reverb and production style of Jesus and Mary Chain.” —KEXP Song of the Day
“Highlight of Bubblegum Lemonade’s ‘10 Years Younger’ EP is probably ‘Unsafe At Any Speed’, their driving JAMC-ish journey down avenues of sixties-tinged indie-pop. Of course, the quality doesn’t end there: the EP, taking in the catchiness of its title track and, with ‘That Thing You Do!’, an excursion into covers territory, gently touches on a few different reference points, not least the way ‘The Tomorrow People’ very earnestly shadows Creation-era Razorcuts.” —In Love With These Times, In Spite Of These Times
“Ten Years Younger is the jangled up long lost cousin of The Velvets ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’. An essential purchase for anyone with a jangle pop bone in their body – Bubblegum Lemonade have made a great EP that takes on board a lot of C86’s original reference points and created something of real beauty.” —Indiemp3.co.uk
“This charmingly lo-fi EP from Glasgow’s Bubblegum Lemonade is shot through with Jesus and Mary Chain super-fuzzed guitars. ‘The Tomorrow People’ borrows the 12 string chime from the Byrds’ early days, along with the steady drone of other early ’60s pop-psychedelic crossovers. ‘Unsafe at Any Speed’ and the title track play out more simplistic, like Velvet Underground two-chord jams skirting the edges of a driving, but equally naive beat.” —Ink 19
“The songs are an even split between Razorcuts and the Jesus And Mary Chain – superimposing jangly guitars and heartfelt vocals over a reverbed-out drum machine.” —IndiePages
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The splendid fifth album from incomparable London quartet Would-Be-Goods is ready for release later this month. Entitled ‘Eventyr’ (
Following massively popular singles ‘Ten Years Younger’ (
A new album from Australia’s The Lucksmiths is always reason to celebrate, but as it’s been nearly four years since ‘Warmer Corners’ (
As if those three weren’t enough, we also await copies of the brand new third album ‘Speak Up’ (
Unsurprisingly, Northern Portrait and Bubblegum Lemonade hold atop the Matinée Hit Parade. Here are the top sellers for September:
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In other top news, The Hermit Crabs play their very first US shows this month as part of the