Time For The Dawn Chorus (And The Dawn Verses)
Spring is here. And so are these beauties.
E-Grand, Gulp, Haakon Ellingsen, Idlewild, Sally Shapiro, Squeeze, The Suncharms, Trashcan Sinatras
Pop In The Real World Taster Tracks 2026 (Spotify)
Pop In The Real World Taster Tracks 2026 (YouTube)
Beneath Strawberry Moons : Gulp
Best for : Music that is perfect for unwinding
There's a kind of music that is rooted in the margins of Britain. You won't find it in cities, or bustling clubs or surrounded by cars and busy roads. It's music that has developed in the Scottish Islands, on the Welsh coast or tucked away alongside an English village green. It's not folk music as you'd ordinarily recognise it. It's music that has grown out of having time to think and to savour what you're creating. You can hear it in the work of Andrew Wasylyk, Group Listening, and Sweet Baboo.
Now, you can add Gulp to their number. They're a collaboration between Scottish musician Lindsey Leven and Guto Pryce, bassist with Super Furry Animals. Gid Goundrey completes the permanent line up.
Gulp make the kind of music that is a little off the beaten track. 'Sea Bear' is music formed with a gentle breeze to lift it like pollen in the air. It lingers long after its initial impact has been felt. 'Always So Far' showcases the gentle psychedelic feel that works magic through the album. 'Salt Years' delights with its birdsong intro and outro, and its quiet overheard voices. The flute in 'Hope Shines Through The Haar' is simply lovely.
Lindsey Leven's vocals are well matched to the music which is strong enough to form part of an instrumental, chilled library music collection with its own special feel and ambience.
Knowing the Super Furry Animals backdrop, this is a surprisingly unhurried collection. It manages to suggest that what you're listening to is 'only' music, but that's one of the most important elements of life. It's only in 'Summer Storm' - the one duet between Leven and Pryce - that busy life intrudes.
This is music that has created its own identity. It's a quiet and precious gem.
Taster Track : Salt Years
Ready to Live A Lie : Sally Shapiro
Best for : Fans of dreamy, comfortable electro synth pop
There's a lot in this album to like. From the start, it's full of songs like 'Hard To Love' wrapped up in a version of electro dance pop that's easy on the ear. Song after song provides a tripping melody over swooshing synths. It becomes as comfortable as a warm duvet or an evening spent looking through old photos capturing bitter sweet memories. According to their Spotify bio, it's a style they've been perfecting for years and they do it very well.
So, why was it ultimately unsatisfying? There's a clue in that same bio. Sally Shapiro are actually a duo of Sally Shapiro and Johan Agebjorn. At some time around 2014 they went their separate ways for a while and took different paths. Shapiro headed towards non electronic pop and Agebjorn took a dive into more ambient electronica. 'Ready To Live A Lie' is where they meet, and it may be that it's too big a compromise for both of them. Perhaps they have been, indeed, ready to live a lie.
You can hear an impeccable array of influences in their songs - Saint Etienne, Dubstar, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Pet Shop Boys. Somehow though, they don't build on them. Instead they sound like echoes that have lost some definition. What should have been their safest choice - a cover of the Pet Shop Boys, 'Rent' - turns out to be their biggest risk, and it doesn't pay off. It's smoothed and softened to remove all cynicism and edge. It's ear candy with all the grit and crystals removed. More than that, the pristine melody of the original is a reminder that Sally Shapiro's own melodies don't come close. They're not bad, but they're competing in a top class field and they're not strong enough to be placed.
There's a glimpse of how things could be for them with the final song 'Rain'. Shapiro's sweet and delicate vocals are perfectly matched to a more stripped back treatment. The ambient rain touches help to give the song a rare beauty. It's a sign that they could yet have a masterpiece within them.
It's an album that is hard to dislike but harder to love.
Taster Track : Rain
A Place No God Will Ever Find : E-Grand
Best for : Painting compelling, dark emotions in vivid indie colours
E-Grand is a French writer, composer and producer, raised in the indie pop rock movements of the 90s. 'A Place No God Will Ever Find' may capture how he was feeling when he recorded the album. The cover depicts desolation and despair, its crumbling edifice smeared by what looks like blood stains. You wouldn't be surprised to find Slipknot shaped demons within.
Rest easy. This turns out to be an album that shows shining indie at its best. It's a wonderfully produced album, full of neat indie touches that are perfectly judged. It chimes and jangles steadily throughout, insistently calling for your attention. The emotion in songs such as 'Fly To Your Star' and 'Where I Belong' can't be faked. Lightly quavering and plaintive vocals are affecting and touch your heart. There's a sincerity about the songs that feels both personal and important. The surprise is that it never descends into bleakness. By the end you'll be aware of a fragile hope that promises future strength.
It's such an individual offering that it feels wrong to link it to the music of others. I'm going to, though. In finding hope in the face of tragedy, it has something in common with Nick Cave, even if they sound completely different. The beat and trumpet flourishes of 'Forever Young' make a connection with Julian Cope and Teardrop Explodes. Most of all though, in his ability to use indie pop as a means of reaching out he shares something of The Sound's Adrian Borland when he's playing 'Rogue Beauty'.
The combination of pristine pop and dark times triggers concern for the losses and body blows that have laid him low. It's a record that brings forth empathy, and hooks you from start to finish.
In the end, confronting his demons has led to an album that is a cause for full on celebration.
Taster Track : Fly To Your Star
Idlewild : Idlewild
Best for : Fans of great, classic, indie rock
I've never been a big fan of Idlewild. Memorably described as a flight of stairs falling down a flight of stairs, they always seemed to be trying too hard to be different, too concerned with earnest students to be having fun.
Their new, self titled album changes all that.
Perhaps it's because we're growing closer in age. Roddy Woombles 49 is closer to my 64 than his 21 was to my 36 when Idlewild released their debut album. His concerns are my concerns. This album is full of the sense of time slipping away. He sings about people he will never meet, memories that haven't been recorded and of things never to be known. On 'Stay Out Of Here' his resignation at how things are is tempered by his gratitude for having been able to take part in it.
'Make It Happen' shows that they can still write angular and edgy songs, but they're not their chief calling card any more. Instead Woomble's thoughtful and surprisingly intricate lyrics are backed by a band that understands what makes a great indie rock song. If Woomble may be the equivalent at times of a serious academic; the band are the sound of the popular boys in school being allowed to have some fun. The music helps a song such as 'It's Not The First Time' to be filled with a noisy optimism, building a sense that there is a resolution to Woomble's concerns. There's a quiet and loud balance too in the songs, always a hallmark of classic indie rock. These are songs that buzz.
On 'Permanent Colours', Idlewild have penned a message to themselves and to others. On 'The Mirror Still' they capture their reflective side. 'Stay Out Of Here', 'Like I Had Before' and '(I Can't Help) Back Then You Found Me' are all excellent songs.
I may not have been an Idlewild fan then, but I am now.
Taster Track : (I Can't Help) Back Then You Found Me
Trixies : Squeeze
Best for : Those that remember the 70s fondly and those that love Squeeze.
Squeeze have made 'Trixies' into an event. Since last year they've been telling the story of how Difford and Tilbrook rediscovered songs they wrote when they first met, Coming face to face with the music of their younger selves was emotional but motivated them to make something of them. Armed with 50 years more experience of how to record an album, they can now share them with the world.
Thank Heavens for that, because this is a very good collection of songs.
This is a concept album celebrating the time their nights out at a club called, surprise surprise, Trixies. Here, we should take a moment to remember the sound of the 70s and its culture. Punk, new wave, and disco hadn't been invented. For many, rock operas and singer songwriters were the way to go. Glam rock was what you saw on TOTP. Attitudes were less 'correct' than we would expect now. It was a fertile breeding ground for budding songwriters.
There are times, particularly early on, when this feels like a Difford and Tilbrook album performed by Squeeze. That's because the album is soaked in their personal memories. It's a much calmer opening than you might expect from a Squeeze album. 'What More Can I Say' is surprisingly sweet and 'You Get The Feeling' continues in the same vein, and explains why Jools Holland's jazz influences became such a good fit for the band. It's a song that's true to its time but also shows how that time has come to influence some of the more gentle indie pop today. 'Hell On Earth' feels much more like a prototype Squeeze, its seaside cinema organ also setting the tone for 'The Dancer'. Capturing the somewhat seedy tone of the time, it's a song that could be part of any subsequent Squeeze album, and hold down its place with credit. 'Why Don't You' has the glam feel of Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. Glam rock and roll defines 'The Jaguars'. The Bowie / Lou Reed glam treatment of 'Trixies Pt 2' is a celebration both of the 70s youth culture and the album as a whole. There's not a weak track here.
We live in a magpie musical culture, where everything sounds borrowed from some aspect of the past. It's not even the first time that Squeeze have explored their heritage, as their songs for the TV series 'Cradle To The Grave' shows. The difference is that whereas that album, and the retro sound of contemporary records recreate the feel of the past, Trixies IS the past. That's a major achievement.
Trixies is a remarkable album for those of us who lived through the times. It's also a primer to explain why Difford and Tilbrook were so often hailed as the new Lennon and McCartney.
It is undoubtedly, and successfully, an event.
Taster Track : You Get The Feeling
Post Script : It's sometimes said that the last words you want to hear at a gig are "Here's one from our new album." No. I saw Squeeze play 'Trixies' in full in Twickenham on 8th March 2026. They were ourstanding. These songs will blow you away live.
Darkening Sky : The Suncharms
Best for : Lovers of the true indie spirit
Sheffield's The Suncharms don't sound as if they come from the grim north. The clue to their sound is hinted at in the title of 'Ferris Wheel'. At first hearing you might latch onto the bass heavy arrangements and echoing atmosphere and think "Shoegaze!" Listen more deeply though and you'll find tunes that are vivid, colourful, full of different flavours and excited energy.
This is an album that brims with confidence and the knowledge that the music they make may not fit current fads, but it's good. I know a man who hosts an indie show on local radio. He knows that indie is not a record label. It's not a genre, or a marketing brand. It's an attitude and a spirit that drives you to step outside the current sounds of the mainstream. He's right, and the Suncharms would fit right into his show. They have the carefree attitude of Postcard and Sarah Records and sound as if they don't spend too much time worrying in advance if something will work, they get on with it and give it a go.
That's why, on the glorious opener 'Midnight Train' you have a shoegaze / rock and roll marriage that's not afraid to display its pop roots. It moves in mysterious ways and introduces unexpected gifts such as a reedy organ that appears again and again in the album. It starts to sound as if The early Charlatans have merged with Slowdive under the spiritual guidance of Richard Hawley. Happiness indeed!
'Stone Tape Rewind' quickly becomes warm and addictive. It sounds like a Friday night hoe down in some parallel galaxy. 'Monster To Me' is fuzzy where it needs to be, the sound of jangle pop's grubbier, elder brother. 'Diamonds' demonstrates this to be an album that brims with confidence, having outgrown any tentative first steps. '1000 Years' spirals away like a disintegrating juggernaut in an action thriller. 'Motorway Bridge' is an unstoppable force. This is an album that reveals its power more and more with every track. It's not all Sheffield steel though. 'Interstellar' brings back the brass that lifted 'Midnight Train' and adds just a touch of melancholy into the mix.
The Suncharms may be presenting us with a Darkening Sky, but it's one where you can see bright sunshine at the edges about to break through.
Taster Track : Midnight Train.
As they are. As they were. Remember their name and catch them live one day
A band so wedded to the indie ethic of music rather than videos being the most important thing, that they have no YouTube videos to share.
PS : If you like the sound of that show mentioned in this review, it's Neil McCurley's Classic Indie + show on internet station Radio Roadhouse UK on Wednesday evenings between 20:00 and 21:00. It's also on Mixcloud shortly afterwards.
EPs and Singles
You know it's a good day when a favourite band unexpectedly releases new music after a gap of eight years. 'The Bitter End' marks a return to the Trashcan Sinatras' rockier early days and away from the acoustic delights of their more recent songs. Fortunately they've not left behind the gifts for melody and hummability of their best songs. This jangles. It rushes. It knocks you off your feet and reminds you of Teenage Fanclub and the crescendo to a great gig. Time now for a new album?
Haakon Ellingsen returns to his musical home with two new songs, located somewhere in the mid 60s during the slightly psychedelic Summer of Love next door to Donovan. 'I Believe In 1965' sets out his musical stall. It's a more experimental and ambitious sound that we're used to, while still providing the comfort of a familiar feeling. 'It's Going Back ' has a Beatlesque 'She's Leaving Home' feel. In both songs there's an innocence contained in the lyrical simplicity which works well with the musical complexity of the arrangements. Try Haakon, if you like bands such as The Lemon Twigs.