![]() Sergeant understand that sometimes happy and simple songs are the best and paradoxically the hardest to write. When you break songs down acoustically, usually it exposes flaws, but these shine like bright gems. If you can't wait until then you can either get their new single K'OK or download some of their readily available acoustic XFM sessions online. Their debut album, presently being recorded with John Leckie (Stone Roses and the Verve) should be out in the autumn. They realise that everyone knows that we will " live and die in these towns" but instead of wallowing in pointless exercises in angst, their songs are cathartic, hopeful and escapist. Sergeant have that slight tinge of anxiety and excitement that makes a good song great. Yet the songs are not excursions into retro-fetish territories - they don't turn pop into an applied scientific experiment. Much like the young Noel Gallagher, they have spent three years gestating their songwriting craft, perhaps in a Brian Wilson-founded rehab clinic for melody addiction. Yet, Sergeant haven't been an overnight success. It's a story that you will see more and more often - fans deciding what band to support on their own without help from the music industry. Coming from Fife (home to the Beta Band, KT Tunstall and James Yorkston) they have wisely managed to be as net-savvy as rival acts, giving away their songs for download, working on their myspace and bebo sites until the work paid off selling out 1,300 capacity venues in their hometown and amassing a legion of die-hard fans before they even had a record deal. Yet I wasn't prepared for the sublime genius of Sergeant. The legacy of past Scottish acts is a great one: Mogwai, the Beta Band, the Vaselines, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Primal Scream and Franz Ferdinand. However, the shambling post-punk and whiteboy disco of the early 80s was transformed by much later bands like Teenage Fanclub, Belle & Sebastian and now Sergeant bands who worked on melody and craft, providing glowing harmonies and immediate songs, influenced by classics like the Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield and the Byrds, but with a uniquely Scottish perspective. With the slogan "The Sound Of Young Scotland Today", Postcard laid the ground for what eventually became known as indie. Only Scottish bands can take that essential West Coast psych jangly guitar, mingle it with choirboy harmonies and make it sound so sublime.įor me, Sergeant continue the tradition set back in '81 when Alan Horne formed Postcard Records and gave the world Orange Juice, Aztec Camera and many others. Their sunny music comes via their Scottish indie roots. However, instead of just one, his band have decided to write an entire catalogue of pure, perfect pop songs. Mercer knows that's all it takes: one pure, perfect pop song to define you.
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