The Shortwave Set
Replica Sun Machine
Wall Of Sound
Album Review
Timeless, classic pop music - you can't beat it, at least when it's done right. Abba, The Beach Boys, The Carpenters, Duran Duran, Adam And The Ants, Blondie, Prince, Madonna, The Beatles, the list is endless, but one thing that links each and every one of them is that their careers have seen more peaks than troughs, and pretty much every household in the country, maybe even the planet, must shamelessly own at least one recorded artefact per artist.
Of course there's the other side of the coin, if you dare to flip it; the times when so-called pop acts - or in many cases Johnny-come-lately revivalists - get the whole concept horribly wrong. Just one look through both the current singles and albums chart reveals a who's who of atrocities designed and manufactured to fill such a void, all of whom possess the subtlety of a greasy quarter-pounder with cheese from Dodgy Dave's burger van at 4am on a Sunday morning after a 12 hour binge on Belgian lager and sambuca shots. The Feeling, Scouting For Girls and The Hoosiers, we're looking at you.
With so many negatives polluting the airwaves, the need to find someone out there doing something positively constructive is an absolute must, if only to nullify the mediocrity beforehand. Sadly, The Shortwave Set fall somewhere safely between the two.
Five years after their formation, the London-based trio still haven't quite found their true identities, and ultimately pay the price for slipping in and out of several guises across 'Replica Sun Machine', their somewhat disorientating, "difficult" second album.
Sure, they've a healthy collection of endorsements (Danger Mouse, Moby, and ahem, Vane Lowe to name but three) while the guestlist here is pretty impressive too, with both John Cale and one-time Beach Boys aficionado Van Dyke Parks both collaborating towards the odd track here and there.
When they get it right, such as on current single 'No Social', The Shortwave Set offer a refreshing blend of atmospheric pop that wouldn't sound out of place on any radio station you care to mention, which is surely the whole point of a cross-genre, mixed demographic sound designed to unite minds and ears of every era.
Unfortunately, there are other times where the whole thing sounds messy, occasionally drifting into aimless pastiche such as with 'House Of Lies' or the cringeworthy 'Now 'Til 69', which sounds like a poor man's Beach Boys trying to come to terms with the loss of their only creative outlet, something they themselves had to endure around the time of Brian Wilson's departure all those years ago.
Refreshingly, The Shortwave Set have at least lost the trip-hop tag that seemed to haunt them on the back of 2005's debut 'The Debt Collection', and even though 'Replica Sun Machine' does feel like a step back in time too far, their journey in reverse may herald a brighter future in the long-run. The question is, will anyone still be listening long enough to care?
5/10
Dom Gourlay
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