Released 3rd December
Upon discovering that they describe themselves as ‘psychopop’ I was immediately struck with fear and an image of an Aqua covers band, delirious having od’d on Skittles and sniffed to much sherbet, singing in a helium fueled voice. Thankfully The Cellophane Flowers are nothing of the sort, and take their vibe from the far cooler song about Lucy and her Diamonds. Their debut EP revealed a band of an insistent and interesting pop sound, and this, their full length album, Staring At The World, shows that the promise on the first set of songs was no magical accident, but the fruits of a very talented band.
The shimmering first notes of Voices suggest that this may be a soothing slow folky style affair (sorry, but I can’t take any more Mumford soundalikes) but the pace quickly picks up into song that is a prism of primary colours. Grooving with sixties savoir and swinging with fifties flair, the whole album has a hypnotic and punchy feel.
Francesca’s vocals are reminiscent of Kate from The Long Blondes, with a sketchy smokey sound of The Postmarks. As delightful as the seductive and lovely languorous singing style is, The Cellophane Flowers don’t rest upon their frontwoman to deliver like so many bands do, with a tight and compelling rhythm section in Nick, flanked by Luca on bass and Ian on guitar, both of whom traverse the fretwork to deliver a discordent frenzy of psychedelic indie.
Whether verging on the line of sweetly sinister with Belinda, buffering up to the edges of euphoria on Time or traversing happy loops and crunching sounds, such as on the angsty Rock’n’Roll, the band are animated and experimental, but never forget what they are there to do – deliver one heck of a pop gem. An album launch party live show has also been confirmed for 6th December at Paper Dress Vintage in Shoreditch – we recommend you get down there!
