Pete And The Pirates

Amid the retina-shredding, cochlea-clattering carnage of new music in 2008, Pete & The Pirates’ debut album sure seems unremarkable at first. “Why, if it’s not tinny guitar-pop stripped back to its most weedy of forms” you might snort, noting the handclaps, the harmonies and some of the most polite rocking-out ever committed to tape. Yet dig beneath the surface and you’ll have your senses rearranged by the tightness of Hamburg-era Beatles, the indie aesthetic of C86 and the dizzy vocal interplay of a more chart-friendly Futureheads. Perfect pop without the pretence, basically. “Starlight, starbright/And it’s you I’m dreaming of tonight” chime the Reading five-piece on ‘Song For Today’. In fact, unless you’ve a vocoder where your heart should be, they’ll make you realise that, sometimes, all you need is a guitar, a head full of melody and a heart full of romance.

Tim Jonze