Collar Up – Ghosts

Initially, Edinburgh trio Collar Up’s second album seems impeded by its unwavering melancholia, the overall impression one of over-earnestness and hand-me-down dream-pop sounds. Then – gradually, entirely – it clicks, Ghosts proving itself far more than just pretty piano playing and oodles of reverb.

The quiet grandeur of tracks like Tonight demonstrate an un-showy expertise, while the lyrical bite of Jam Jar Full of Wasps hints at a heated undercurrent easy to miss on first pass. Vocally, band-leader Stephen McLaren sets targets his larynx is only barely up to hitting, but his soft tones are affectingly expressive, matched to an atmospheric wash of dolorous piano and guitar melodies. And what’s more, it’s not as po-faced as first feared either, as evidenced by the existential musings of Every Man for Himself – a song in which the narrator meets his 8-year-old self playing footie, ponders the passing of time, and then promptly gets nutmegged by the jumped-up doppelganger. [Chris Buckle]