Skalazoo Magic
Happy Easter. You'll find these artists the perfect accompaniment to regretting the unfeasible qualtities of chocolate you've consumed over the Easter weekend
Arp, Bibi Club, Captain Wilberforce, The Corner Laughers, Music City, Stella Donnelly
Pop In The Real World Taster Tracks 2026 (Spotify)
Pop In The Real World Taster Tracks 2026 (YouTube)
Concerns Of Wasp and Willow : The Corner Laughers
Best for : Everyone - at least once.
In 1965 Bacarrach and David told us that what the world needs now is love, sweet love. It still does, but a little bit of The Corner Laughers will help too.
They're from California but share the spirit of Britain's maypoles, village pubs and duck ponds. Where Burt and Hal preached love, The Corner Laughers preach and practice joy and happiness in pop. They're the soundtrack you need to get you through a hundred holiday traffic jams. Sway to their songs as you would if you were caught up in a pub singalong, laughing at yourselves as you move and having the time of your life.
These are the kind of songs that have their birth in shower-singing at the top of your voice. They have improvised and spontaneous melodies, shaped into great arrangements by an excellent band. It's a completely natural sound, with the sweetness of sugar, not the synthetic taste of saccharine.
They twang and gallop through their music, commandeering folk, country and western, indie pop and bar room piano into their mission. They're a band that only needs a Victoria Sponge recipe to be happy. The proof is that they've written a song about it. 'Terra firma' is all innocence and fun, building and breaking like surf on your favourite beach. 'Dusking' is spot on and pitch perfect. It's a pleasure to listen to the upbeat positivity in 'Rainbow Cardigan's storytelling. 'Crumb Clean' may not be cool, but it's one of the strongest singalong songs for some time.
This is a band that come across like Fairground Attraction on dopamine. You'll hear extreme versions of Stornoway in the mix, and the Proclaimers' most sentimental side too. They're invested in the sixties Summer of Love at the very moment that the first indications of 1968's rebellious spirit begin to make themselves felt.
The question for some may be, will it last or will a little go a long way but with a short shelf life? Who cares if, in this particular moment, it's exactly what you need.
Taster Track : Dusking
Drifts : Arp
Best for : Those who like their music to come with rich textures
Pop In The Real World is first and foremost a music blog. It's a broad church admitting most genres, stopping short of out and out classical and anything that's closer to sound or noise. When it comes to thinking about what music is, everyone will have their own list of its qualities. My list includes melody, rhythm, beat and instruments.
Ambient poses a few challenges, Arp's 'Drifts' is the closest I've come from excluding something because it's not musical. What it does share with the best music though is that it makes you feel.
You have to immerse yourself fully in this or it will do nothing for you. Listen to it when you can be alone, free from all distractions, preferably through headphones with your eyes closed. Listening to this is, if nothing else, a genuinely sensory experience.
It's true to say that this is closer to a soundscape with musical adornments, mainly from the piano. From time to time, as on 'Seaweed', elements of nu classical break through like dolphins breaking the surface for air. There are passages that arrange themselves into absent mindedly, hypnotic rhythms, as if they arrive by accident, casting their spell over the composer before tackling the listener.
These pieces are richly textured, like fabric. They're soft and gentle but also heavy and creased like long stored curtains. Everywhere you turn you'll hear crackles, hisses and bursts of what sounds like static. You'll also hear parts that are softly played, coming across like sunshine breaking through otherwise stormy clouds.
The feeling you take from these tracks is personal. I found several of the tracks filled with foreboding, even ominous tones. 'Dissolve' contains a thudding sound as if someone is pacing the floor of the flat above in the middle of the night.
'Drifts' is a clever album, no doubt about it. I'm not sure that it fully engages with the listener though. The saving grace of something like this is that it should take you to a deeper level of consciousness and sleep. On that level it didn't work for me.
When shopping for new clothes, sometimes you come home empty handed. That's how I feel about exploring this record.
Taster Track : Touch
Another World. Another Life. Another Time. : Captain Wilberforce
Best for : Anyone who likes new wave power pop, pure and simple.
I start this review with the observation that Squeeze, one of the greatest singles acts of all time, have had only three Top 10 singles. 'Goodbye Girl', 'Pulling Mussels From A Shell' and 'Tempted' didn't even make the Top 40. How can that be?
Captain Wilberforce may be similarly under appreciated, for equally inexplicable reasons. They have all the melodies, hooks and staccato rhythms you could hope for, and they're excellently played with punch, swagger, conviction and likeability. They operate at the true heart of pop, undiluted by marginal influences. So why have they accumulated just 363 Spotify listeners?
As Toyah once commented, it's a mystery. Scraping around for an explanation, one could be that they're not the most prolific band. This is just their fifth album since they released their debut in 2005.
There's a feeling that they're teenagers that have never quite grown up. That would account for the notes of regret underneath the pristine, polished indie power pop on the album. They love the music that inspired them then and want to stay there. Unfortunately life has changed around them. Jobs have beckoned. Friends have moved on. Clinging to the time of your lives doesn't win you new fans.
These are songs that have been crafted until they're exactly right. The short burst of feedback midway through 'Four Words and the Enter Key' extracted a nod of approval as soon as I heard it. 'Golden' builds beautifully. 'Can't Get It Out of My Head' is spot on in every detail. 'Sonny' has the feel of Difford and Tilbrook at their best.
There is a select set of bands that it is easy to commit to and love. Captain Wilberforce can be counted amongst their number and they will find like minded souls there in The Lottery Winners, The James Clarke Five and , yes, Squeeze.
Captain Wilberforce make music you don't want to leave behind. It's literally music to my ears.
Taster Track : Golden
Love And Fortune : Stella Donnelly
Best for : Lovers of high quality introspective songs from an evolving artist.
I thought I knew two things about Stella Donnelly. First she's Australian and, secondly that she's at the rockier end of indie pop. I'd heard her previous album 'Flood', liked it but didn't feel it particularly stood out.
'Love and Fortune' is different and better. She's evolved into a more thoughtful and clever songwriter. Her songs are carefully constructed and beautifully paced. 'Year of Trouble' is a shining example.
The opening track 'Standing Ovation' takes you by surprise. Its quiet opening is a bold introduction to the album. It's not until the midpoint that it starts its appealing jangle. On a song such as 'W.A.L.K' her melodies and song structures have you catching your breath to see where they will take you. The effect on 'Please Everyone' is as if you've wandered in the church of Saint Stella, and not just because of the organ keyboard that opens the track.
To say that Stella is Australian is only partly true. She's actually Australian / Welsh. On this album, the Welsh in her has discovered the beauty and power of her voice. Across this album she showcases her vocals which are pure, solemn and totally captivating. Nothing is overwrought or overdone.
This is a quieter album than I remembered from 'Flood' 'Being Nice' sets down a move away from the indie rock boundary. It's an indie pop gem that I played immediately on repeat. Her evolution sees her moving more towards indie folk, a more fitting sound for the feelings in her songs. She has left behind the indie friends lifestyle and concerns of the past, and to hear that transition in song is moving.
And as for that third starting assumption that she was good but stuck in the indie pop crowd? She's freed herself from its ties and hovers high above it like a watchful kestrel.
'Love And Fortune' is an album to admire, anticipate and, above all, love.
Taster Track : Standing Ovation
Amaro : Bibi Club
Best for : Working through grief with song
It's not rare for a song or album to be used as a way of coming to terms with grief. It's often as the music starts to play that people begin to cry at funerals. Less common, perhaps, is to record while you're still working through your emotions.
The moment that it hit me that this was a fairly visceral exploration of grief in process came in the stark line in 'Washing Machine' "Where do we go after the death of our child?". It hits like a punch and it leaves a sharp sting like a graze you can't allow to heal.
'Washing Machine' comes towards the end of the album and it pushed me to reassess how I felt about what I had already heard. A washing machine is a great image for the way the feelings in the album come to the fore. Those feelings are tangled up, ferociously spun, obscured through the washing machine door and made sense of only in pieces. For example it places 'A Different Light' in, well, a different light. The voices crowding in from every direction try to drown out the sound of the song itself, suggesting the agitation of not being able to make yourself heard, even to yourself. The clattering, percussive beat of 'Le Chateau' makes more sense too. Initially it felt at odds with itself, trying too hard to be dramatic but it's the perfect way for capturing grief at a particular point in the grieving process. It makes for a dark album that tries for resolution but fails to attain it even in the album closer 'The Pine On The Corner'. The words say one thing but the feelings remain unchanged. The matter of fact ending never reaches acceptance and can't hide the pain.
So… serious words for a pop album. How does it stand up musically? Well, if I'm honest, it doesn't quite feel as if the songs are the natural expressions of Bibi Club. That's understandable, and it doesn't make this a bad or disappointing one, just an unexpected one.
It's an album that relies on momentum more than melody and on Sereolab more than synthpop. Songs are anchored with a propulsive synth groove. In 'Infinite' the familiarity bursts into energy before fading away, a nice touch if a familiar one. 'Amaro' feels like industrial dance. There are moments of surprise littered throughout - the sax in 'George Sand' being just one of them.
'Amaro' is not perfect, but it is a brave and ambitious album.
Taster Track : Les Vagues
Welcome To Music City : Music City
Best for : Teenagers who don't want to change the world
Back in the mid to late 70s, I'd arrive home from school and hang around in my room until dinner was ready. I'd rarely have plans for the evening. There weren't many places for a fifteen year old to go during close season in a seaside town, and most friends lived a few miles away in the town where I went to school. I was happy enough to waste the evening listening to the radio and delaying the prospect of chemistry homework. (Actually, I have no memory of ever doing chemistry homework. That could explain my abject exam performance.)
Music City is exactly the kind of record that would soundtrack those evenings straddling the boundary between pleasure and boredom.
Its songs bring nostalgia for a time when you could spend time frittering away hours with absolutely nothing. Their new wave power pop has a little bit of Rockpile, without their gift for smart lyrics. There's a touch of left over glam rock and a decent splash of pub rock in the mix. Compared to, say, The Undertones, The Jam or Blondie they're not at the races, but compared to the bands those groups inspired such as The Rubinoos, The Records or The Romantics they comfortably hold their own.
You may not remember those names, but they were the standard fare of evening radio supplied by the likes of Peter Powell and Janice Long. They were the reason that radio played a big part in your life. They may not inspire you to change the world, but they'll keep you entertained for hours at a time without taking up too much memory space afterwards.
It's a comfortable place to be. The ambient opening to 'It's Alright' feels like Music City awakening, both the band and the fictional place. 'Pretty Feelings' calls to mind The Cars, and delivers the trans Atlantic feel of a hundred bands who once dreamed of success beyond their wildest dreams. It's for those left behind watching their progress. 'The Conversation' is typical, lots of energy and enthusiasm buzzing around without going anywhere.
I don't intend this review to sound negative, more realistic. Here's an alternative take from God Is In The TV
It's fun while it lasts. Now, just a couple more songs and then I'll make a cup of coffee and tidy away the dishes.
Taster Track : Pretty Feelings