Music For Lovers, Not Haters
The music is this week's blog is soothing, not jagged; uplifting not downbeat; melodic not harsh; a respite not a challenge.
Alexis Taylor, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Cult With No Name, Doublespeak, GNAC, Mecanica Clasica, Nils Frahm, The Solid Doctor
Pop In The Real World Taster Tracks 2026 (Spotify)
Pop In The Real World Taster Tracks 2026 (YouTube)
Una Teoria Del Ritmo : Mecanica Clasica
Best for : Those who want to enjoy accessible and satisfying electronic music that no one else knows.
From Spain, Mecanica Clasica make electronic music with the clean and clinical sound of Kraftwerk's Dusseldorf and the warmth of quiet evenings by the Mediterranean.
It's music for geeks on holiday, the kind of music that's ideal for testing headphones, speakers - and ears! The title translates as 'A Theory of Rhythm', and these instrumentals have rhythm at their core. 'Forma' literally has the feel of a heartbeat carrying you along. It's one of those tunes you can drift away to, and is unexpectedly calming and immersive.
It makes for something surprisingly relaxed. There's nothing industrial, harsh or dystopian here. It's also more inventive than much electronic music designed to help you to chill out. 'Recurrence' captures the sense of music made by machines programmed with a human playfulness. And it sounds great.
Catchy electronic instrumentals can tread a thin line between accessibility and cheese. Mecanica Clasica navigate their way around this border with ease. 'Movimento' demonstrates that what starts with a stuttering rhythm evolves into a proper tune that hooks you in without irritating you. Where it drifts towards full ambience, as on 'Reaccion' it's an ambience that cradles you.
Machine-made this may be, but it also has the feel of the natural world. Water comes to mind in several places. The rhythms drip and trickle their way through 'Dinamica'. 'Agogica' would be the perfect music to listen to by a moonlit lake to wind down at the end of a hard day's enjoyment. It feels as if the only thing stirring is a soft, gentle breeze, providing total relaxation through swooning strings.
Holidays, we learn from Mecanica Clasica, don't mean leaving good music behind.
Taster Track : Movimento
Paris In The Spring : Alexis Taylor
Best for : Lonely musings, sometimes positive and upbeat, for Monday mornings.
Alexis Taylor co-founded Hot Chip with Joe Goddard. Their 2006 single 'Over and Over' opens with the line "Laid back, laid back, laid back. We'll give you laidback." It was widely interpreted as a middle finger to the critics who felt their debut lacked edge, and heralded a more bangers based approach to their sound.
On Paris In The Spring, Taylor delivers on that literal promise from 20 years ago. It's a side of Hot Chip that he's exploring more fully and personally.
You'll read elsewhere that this is a positive and upbeat collection. That's not quite how it strikes me. It certainly starts as such with the chilled positivity of 'Your Only Life' and the introduction of a key message - live for now and do something, anything. As the album progresses though it switches between blissful, trouble free tripping across the universe and something more downbeat and painful. 'Colombia' is a downer drug song, painfully slowed down but lyrically clever with it. For every 'Your Only Life' and 'On A Whim' there's a 'Mp3s Can Make You Cry' and 'Black Lodge In The Sky'. Taken as a whole these feel like the meditations of a lonely, solo astronaut crossing the universe, destination far away.
Be reassured. There's an awful lot to like on the album. Taylor's vocals are a treat, unhurriedly caressing you into liking the songs. The overall vibe is of grooves rather than tunes. The slow pace, maintained throughout, is striking and leisurely. Variations to some of the songs are slight and minor, but feel significant, for example the sudden unaccompanied line in 'Your Only Life'. You may only realise how far the song has brought you when you return to the beginning. The cover of the Stones' 'Wild Horses' is a surprise and a delight. It reinforces that this is music Taylor wants to make, taking an old favourite and turning it into his own song.
Melodies are winsome and, occasionally, at odds with the lyrics but they're still capable of squirming their way into your head and staying there. There are more than enough moments of a mellow, chilled, smooth and lovely vibe to keep even the fiercest case of Monday Morning blues away.
Taster Track : Your Only Life
Laughter In Summer : Beverly Glenn-Copeland
Best for : Breaking your heart with the power of music
Beverly Glenn-Copeland is 82 years old and received a dementia diagnosis in 2024. Knowing that, 'Laughter In Summer' is loaded with an almost overwhelming bittersweet emotion. It's heartbreaking but also life affirming.
The album has already been hailed as special, and one of the albums of 2026. For once the hype isn't misplaced, mainly because it transcends pop to become a love letter to shared memories. Parting is no less a sweet sorrow when it takes place over months and years.
Step outside the emotional context, and you'll find a folk album invested with all of Glenn-Copeland's classical training. Several of the songs are duets with his wife, Elizabeth and they're filled with love and memories in both directions. Their voices sing through a soft focus with no room for bitterness, cynicism or anger. The shared warmth of 'Harbour' will have you smiling through eyes that are beginning to fill with tears. The music swirls as it unlocks memories that seem to come from a part of the mind that busy life usually places beyond recall. On songs such as 'Ever New' and 'Let Us Dance (Movement One)' the wordless vocals are as important to the overall effect and impact as the lyrics. 'Children's Anthem' is hymn like. With its pure simplicity and simple purity it's dignified and sincere.
Words are not enough to describe this album and my words in particular lack the depth to do it justice. You need to feel it. It's a rare album that shows both the power of music and of love. It's never sad, but it could leave you on the brink of becoming an emotional wreck.
Taster Track : Ever New
Struck Off : The Solid Doctor
Best for : Anyone who needs music to listen to while they do nothing.
This is an unexpectedly tricky one. It's an undeniably enjoyable listen, and doesn't feel like its 71 minute running time. The issue I have is that it doesn't try to capture your full attention. It's as if it's designed to let you switch off.
Let's wind back a bit. The Solid Doctor is another performing name for Steve Cobby who is a producer best known for being part of Fila Brazilia, staples of the Cafe del Mar gentle, come down culture. On this record you can hear why. It's smooth, chilled and undemanding.
Perhaps I can illustrate this better if I let you know what else I found myself doing without meaning to, while listening to this. I looked up a few things he's done before. I inadvertently switched to a completely different song by a dissimilar band while attempting to add their new single to my 'New Singles' playlist. I completed my stretching exercises,paying attention to my health and fitness before wandering into the kitchen for some Rich Tea biscuits. And I browsed a couple of music magazines to find some new records to download. I had a pleasant time, but I can't pretend I was focused on the music. I feel bad about that. But this album made it too easy not to pay attention. A little more troublingly, it didn't prompt me to seek out more by The Solid Doctor and his associated acts, or to delve more widely into the genre.
'Rag Bone', which opens the album, is a great warm up number, perfect for loose limbed stretches. 'Come On' has a catchy, atmospheric and chilled groove. The extended, jazz inflections of 'We / Us / Our' are lazy and relaxed but, for the most part, unobtrusive. I'm not sure when my attention began to wander but the energetic last minute of the tune, and the brief, noisier 'Capodemonte Bong' jerked me back to the music. Attention is also regained when tracks such as 'Felix Culpa' veer into the distracting tones of a buzzing fly. The cinematic wanders into play on 'D Is For Death', perkiness comes into 'A Resting Kestrel' and Stephanie Halsey's harp on 'The Quiet Air' is soothingly lovely. 'Serendubity', featuring the warm vocals of Dennis Bovell is perfect for anticipating Summer.
I'm left with the reluctant conclusion that, lovely though this can be, it's mainly music to whet the appetite for your next holiday while inputting data as you work from home.
Taster Track : Rag Bone
Indifference and Dust : Cult With No Name
Best for : Grown up symphonic synthpop
Synth pop is a broad church but, even so, it's hard to see where Cult With No Name fits in. That's not a bad thing by any means. Even the band struggles with describing themselves. In 2018 they described themselves to We Are Cult magazine as : "'post-punk half-drunk atmospheric esoteric electronic balladeers' Some of that strikes true.
The first impression is of something luxurious but a little gloomy. With 'Running (In And) Out Of Time' - I love brackets in a song title - the feel is of a high end cinema soundtrack. 'Set Go' reinforces that. It's a high quality production with lavish synths and a memorable melody. There's a sense of being spoiled.
The second impression is that there's an unusually strong focus on ballads. Whilst that isn't completely new,it's rare to find it as the defining sound of a synthpop album. This is music from synth pop's older brother. They're linked to a second generation of The Blitz Kids but they eschew wild hedonism for something more serious. They're not out to shock but to quietly impress. If it's a little gloomy, it's good gloomy.
Describing their sound is as much an exercise in showing what they are not. They've made music for the concert hall, not the club. They sound less edgy than post punk but share its sense of unease. 'Home's Where The Heart Was' is a good example of that. Neither are they as disposable as radio friendly synth pop. You could call them a late period Ultravox but without the pretentiousness, or the Pet Shop Boys shorn of their fast techno lite beats. In a parallel universe they could represent the route taken by Bryan Ferry. There's a flicker of Durutti Column in '240 Vaults', and of Black in the vocals throughout.
If they were a film they'd be closer to arthouse than multiplex, more 'Titanic' than 'The Boat That Rocked' and as sumptuous and comfortable as an attendant service Everyman.
We all deserve to be indulges at some point. That's when you need Cult With No Name.
Taster Track : Running (In and) Out Of Time
EPs, Singles and Songs
Nils Frahm is one of those rare artists you only come to if you really want to listen. Push him into the background and he'd likely disappear. He makes music with a different purpose, not just to entertain but to reset.
He released a 29 minute EP last year called 'Night'. If you're new to him, that's probably the right length for your introduction. His piano may be sparse and minimal but it's also heavy and intense, full of the weight of silence that bleeds into the hushed and unhurried notes to become something truly mesmerising.
Frahm's music possesses great beauty and discipline. He'd make a great therapist, never afraid to hold a silence. As he shows on 'Kanten'', he's not afraid to leave ten seconds of near silence to allow the last elements of a note to fade away completely. He's as concerned with the space between notes as he is with the notes themselves. They're the breaths that bring the music to life. On 'Kanten',the most upbeat piece here, the spaces fracture the melodies, leaving you to reassemble them from the parts you hear, becoming part of the process. He transforms a simple piano into a multi-layered sound as if heard close up through an aural microscope. His compositions are the complete opposite of party music and they are beautiful.
By coincidence, GNAC's 'I Didn't Want To Say Goodbye' is the ideal track to bring you out of a Nils Frahm induced trance and back to the world of more mainstream pop. It's a more radio friendly piece, loaded with his signature prettiness. Accompanied by a gradually building, celestial backing, it's reliably lovely.
Doublespeak is a collaboration between Erasure's Vince Clarke and Blamange's Neil Arthur, ably produced by experimental electronic music producer, Benge. It's a trailer for a covers album that is out on 29th May, featuring electronic versions of classic songs by acts such as Abba, David Essex and The Carpenters. It could be a brilliant set of creative reinterpretations or a complete sell out. Fad Gadget's 'Back To Nature' may not be the best trailer for the album. It feels heavy going and a little clunky stripping out the most interesting parts of the original without adding much to replace it. The jury's out until I hear the full album.