World Atlas.  A band from Brooklyn, New York.   So come May they’re gonna be one of the home town bands at the Popfest.    Saying all this I hear the not so distant echoes of a Scottish pop combo running deep through their souls.  Belle and Sebastian anyone?

They also feature Fred Thomas. That’s the same Fred Thomas that until recently led the often wonderful Saturday Looks Good To Me.   I’ve not heard a band that wanted to be Belle Sebastian circa 1997 so much in a long time.   It’s not bad per se.   It’s just so achingly in debt to Stuart Murdoch and his band of cohorts -  pillaging 80s indiepop and 60s motown/northern soul with the same pleasure that made the first three Belle and Sebastian albums so damn vital and essential.  Even down to the bits where the music dies, and the bass remains, and a aching lead vocal drifts over the top.   It’s all rather fine.  But as we have heard it done before and I’m not sure I am ripe for this path to be trodden again.  Sometimes a sound is so associate with one band I find it hard to hear similar sounds from another band.  Maybe it’s just me as the band are obviously doing something right though as the always ace Magic Marker Records have added the band to their roster.

Links: New York Popfest |  World Atlas