As always the A Pessimist is Never Disappointed blog listed on the right hand side of this page is faultless in terms of its taste. This time, in tipping me off to this Under Blue Skies by Armstrong, a perfect series of slices of alternative guitar pop like Roddy Frame used to make them back in the early Eighties.
Frame and Aztec Camera are an inevitable touchstone when attempting to describe what's going on here. Armstrong are led by Julian Pitt and he's Welsh but he sounds far more Eat Kilbride to me and I'd bet my bottom dollar that his copies of High Land, Hard Rain and Knife are pretty well worn.
I first heard those records in the flush of my own youth almost thirty years back. They still mean a lot to me. Under Blue Skies never shakes off the unmistakable shroud of Frame's influence. But then it doesn't seem to want to. It's a fine record anyhow, so long as it's regarded on its own terms. Like Frame himself for many people, it will stay seventeen forever.
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