Turn You On [CD]

This has been probably my favourite band since the first album came out and in many ways i consider them a little secret as few people seem to have heard of them. Their first album was fantastic, and granted it would take a fine recording to beat it.

The opening track If-then is a good recap of what came with the first album, Young Forever. Fabulous melody, with lots of glockenspiel, a highly underestimated instrument in the pop/folk/rock world. The first single (i think) is Hypnotised, which i've heard on radio 2, but nowhere else and i think thats a shame, the one thing that could easily hinder their progress to world domination. Listen up radio playlists!! Hypnotised is a great song with more 'feldy trademark backing vocals and all round happiness. The rest of the album i think follows a similar route to their earlier release, which is no bad thing, and i completely disagree with Q magazine, who decided it was worth only 2 stars.

Many happy days will be spent by me and a few chosen others listening to these guys. In If-then you find the lyric "if the world gets on without us, fine". If I am one of the few to ever listen to this album I will happily live in their world, but it would be a travesty. It hasn't beaten Young Forever in my book, but that would be enormously difficult, and i think Do Whatever Turns You On makes a good stab at it. So go on and buy it, just remember to get Young Forever too!

Aberfeldy is one of those glorious little bands in the shadow of their countrymen -- it must be tough to make lovely pop music when you have to compete with Belle and Sebastian and Camera Obscura, and even similar-sounding bands like the Magic Numbers.

But Aberfeldy hold their own with "Do Whatever Turns You On," their follow-up to twee masterpiece "Young Forever." This time around, the band tries a steelier approach to their music, with more polish, without losing the bittersweet charm that made "Young Forever" such an entrancing pop album.

It opens with "If Then," a glockenspiel pop tune of irresistable simplicity and upbeat that harkens back to their early sound. Just call it a bridge between the first album and this one. "If you stick with me/then there will definitely be happy ever after," Riley Briggs assures us, also adding that, "if the world gets on without us, fine!"

That sound trails over into the second song, but then Briggs and Co. explore some newer sounds, like some cheesy 1980s retro melodies (are those Devo influences I hear?), solid power-pop, soft songs that explode into masses of synth, and summery, sunny, 60s-style pop songs that just avoid being sugary sweet, by having dark, sardonic lyrics.

In this album, Aberfeldy has lost a bit of their lo-fi quirk, and gained new recording polish. Oh yeah, and the cover has the band, and not lions in flagrante delicto. But fortunately, neither of those things have the slightest effect on how delightful "Do Whatever Turns You On" ends up being.

The tunes are kept alive with shining keyboard, explosions of synth, loads of shimmering glockenspiel and enchanting harmonies. It's a very summery album, at least on the musical scale, although they do dip into downbeat territory by the final song. It doesn't fit the rest of the album, but every song up until then will be addictive.

The lyrics are what keep the pop confections from seeming too sunny. There's a the cynical streak that runs just under the surface, with Briggs taking little diggs at the easily successful, as well as meditations on love, disillusionment, individuality, and people who waste their own talents.

There's even a dig at retro ("You dress as if/it was the 1970s/you say, `that's heavy'/but you don't know what it means!"), heavy on the irony, and a defiant proclaimation about talent ("The talent I was given/to keep inside would be criminally wrong...") It adds a bittersweet edge to straightforwardly sweet music, and adds wonderful depth to their sound.

Addictive and infectious, Aberfeldy tries out some new musical styles with solid results. Do whatever turns you on!

Aberfeldy are back with a vengeance. Their debut album had some catchy, poppy tunes in a 1970s kitsch plastic style - Heliopolis springs to mind.

Do Whaterver Turns You On is solid, unrelenting 70s pop - with some glorious glock and super synth. True Trendies has one of the catchiest synth riffs you'll ever hear, and Turn Me Towards The Light rivals anything Scissor Sisters has done.

For feelgood fun, but with some real black humour in Riley's lyrics, featuring bass, violins, glock, banjo, guitar, keyboards and drums to produce a BIG sound, you can't beat Aberfeldy.

And they're even better live!