Lightships – Fear & Doubt EP

For those Teenage Fanclub fans who have always held a torch for Gerard Love’s songcraft, his Lightships project holds great potential, allowing his gorgeously dreamy melodies to take centre stage. The four tracks on this EP have the same intoxicating quality of his earlier work, but Lightships eschew Teenage Fanclub’s guitar-heavy sound, opting for a more washed-out, ethereal approach.

The end result can sometimes feel slightly lacking in definition, particularly on the reverb-soaked Cavalcade; Lightships are most effective on Silver and Gold, which juxtaposes verses of wispish fragility with a robust, stomping chorus, laced with fuzzy guitars. Love remains one of the most melodically-gifted songwriters around, and as the highpoints here demonstrate, he’s still capable of embellishing his compositions with new ideas. [Sam Wiseman]