Scottish bands either tend towards sleazoid drone-rock or elegant songcraft. The Pearlfishers are more Brill Building than CBGB’s?as with ’80s forebears Danny Wilson and Hue & Cry, the spectres of Bacharach and Goffin/King (though not Phil Spector) loom large over these sophisticated vignettes, enhanced as they are by flugelhorns, cellos and violas. Even a post-Brill writer like Todd Rundgren is eulogised here on “Todd Is God”, all piano curlicues, “I Saw The Light” guitar and an arrangement worthy of a US TV sitcom theme. Vocalist/multi-instrumentalist David Scott could be a monstrously successful bespoke tunesmith for talentless boy band members
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