For A Sunny Day In Glasgow (SDG), if an idea seems far out, it needs further poking, prodding, and finally some love and attention. At the same time, the band is not one to erase and reformat their sweet, simple, and naïve indie-pop styling in the interest of experimentation. Autumn, Again might be a “free download” album of rejects – originally recorded for the band’s previous effort Ashes Grammar – but the musical weirdness seems anything but out of place.
The chaos of cacophony at the beginning of “Fall In Love” that quickly dissipates is just the sort of mischievous segues – sometimes as separate intro cuts – that add a touch of surprise to the collection of some of the sweetest pop songs ever. This is a band that unflinchingly embraces the idiosyncrasies and dispositions of shoegazer, and so their ultra-sweet pop songs have a dreamy aura; they are almost like dream-pop for a new generation of kids.
Sometimes, the band puts little twist on their shoegazer groove, and plays the music like it used to be played in the good old days with the most minimum dainty synthesizer effects, like on “Drink Drank Drunk,” which would bring some serious tears of joy to fans of Lush. But for the most part, SDG’s beautifully twisted indie pop world coexists in harmony with the band’s shoegazer golden calf, producing soulfully singable and danceable, angelic melodies like “How Does Somebody Say When They Like You,” which has a modern neo hipster spin. However, the music is not without the sense of melancholy of the shoegazer-era that’s either missing or tempered in today’s indie world. Autumn, Again’s wistfulness is as haunting as its music.
Autumn, Again is a wonderfully imaginative pop record. Its complexities aren’t as challenging as they are charming. It is impossible to imagine this set of songs as rejects — but at least they found the light of the day.
