Delays - Faded Seaside Glamour

I love 1996. Or rather, Delays do. The sun is still shining, John Power is still at the height of his inconsiderable charms, Oasis aren’t crap yet, and Blur are doing their best impression of a tabloid traincrash waiting to happen.

By all rights, we should dismiss this kind of stuff as out of date nonsense. Except we can’t. We haven’t been able to since ‘Nearer than Heaven’ first landed on our doormat almost a year ago. It’s way too infectious for any of that - packaged with it’s very own post britpop time warp, it doesn’t even sound dated. Result.

Cleverer than those who might want to do them harm, ‘Faded Seaside Glamour’ proves that Delays may not be the one trick pony that we thought anyway, however good that party piece may be. Album opener ‘Wanderlust’ seems to have steel drums (‘Mysterious Girl’ 2004? We think not), ‘Bedroom Scene’ has tinges of the Mansun about it without the pointless melodrama, while ‘Stay What You Are’ sleazes along in the kind of way you could never expect before listening.

If jangly indie with harmonies so high you’ll never manage to sing along is your kind of thing, well… you know the deal by now. It may all hark back to yesteryear, but weren’t they the best you ever had? Last one to Andy’s Records has to buy this week’s Melody Maker.