This is what the country needs – a genuinely cheery, clever pop album from the former mainman of landfill-indie darlings The View (“Same Jeans”). It’s great. Do you need more? (Edit: the week after I updated my views after hearing this but have played Kyle more).
OK, you do. Falconer seems a nice guy, and The View are still a popular festival band, so he’s clearly very good at what he does: he can write a really summery tune and he has a nice voice.
The sound sits somewhere between Arcade Fire (pomp-rock) and arty singer-songwriters, maybe Ed Harcourt. Oddly enough, the small god of music made me play Canadian band Broken Social Scene just before this, and the similarities are obvious. To me, anyway.
BSS is a musical collective often labelled baroque pop – a fusion of rock with classical influences, blending experimental pop with clever instrumentation and pulsing synths. So on first play-through of this, I was primed for catchy, intelligent, quirky pop.
The title track is a short (57s) acoustic piece at track two, while “Worlds Away” is an anthemic tune that opens with a pulsing beat and slightly shambolic intro before dropping into a power-pop song ideally suited to a warm, sunny day. Justin Hawkins lends his vocals too – a man who can really sing. Even when Falconer is not dropping a standout, they’re all still cracking pop tunes. The sound ranges from ambitious, spirit-lifting tracks (“Trace of Me”, possibly the standout) to more straightforward pop (“Midas Touch”, featuring my wife’s old uni buddy Peter Doherty) and more throbby electronic moments (“Lady Coachella”).
I played some of his older solo albums as research, and they’re routine singer-songwriter fare; this is so much better it’s like he’s a different person. Well worth a listen.
Leopard man photo: Gabi Darblade and Freddie Nuttall
