Album title:
'Breaking Up'
Artist:
The Research
Label:
At Large
Somewhere in the gargantuan world of the music industry, far away from the macho-infested sleaze-rock scene and angsty teen-goth/metal communtiy there is a tender playground of sunshine pop. Supervised by Belle and Sebastian; Apples in Stereo are building sandcastles with The Concretes while The Pipettes are playing hand-clap games with the newest addition to the camp, The Research. They are most welcome to, because they brought a tender debut LP built up around blip-blooping Casio keyboards that are filled out with enough vocal harmonies and 'ba-ba-bas' to satisfy all their play-friends. The Wakefield trio pull it off shamelessly well at times, as seen in anti-valentine single Lonely Hearts Still Beat The Same, although they can also occasionally get stuck in the weary swamp of mediocrity proving that they should possibly have cut their fourteen tracks down a wee bit to keep the attention on top. [Chris Nordeng]