Be A Familiar - Pain In The Heart

Glasgow seven-piece Be A Familiar are building a strong reputation from exuberant live performances, but they’ll have to do better than this if they’re ever to emerge from their city’s seething mass of underachieving bands. Sure, tooting horns, maudlin violin lines and female backing vocals are essential ingredients for any classy indie-pop outfit these days, but both Pain In The Heart and b-side Tiptoe feature repetitive punchy choruses which reek of songwriter’s block. Unfortunately, on-stage energy can’t mask recorded, replayable mediocrity. [Ally Brown]