Leeds based Forgettable Faces make what I’m going to call alt-pop. Now I’m aware of course that alt-pop is a rather vague, or even flexible, way of describing music so I’ll attempt to be more descriptive.
‘Tomorrow’ has hints of jazz, a little soul and a whole load of what I call that Laurel Canyon sound; in particular later period Joni Mitchell. This is all mixed and wrapped up into a brilliant piece of pop. Or you could forget all of that and just describe it as sunny delicious pop with a tune that is as earwormy as hell, a beat you can dance to and a great lyric. The choice is yours.
However you choose to describe it, this is put together beautifully. It starts with a great vocal, sparse choppy guitar, and clever and subtle keys. This is not throwaway pop, it’s pop made with craft, feeling and skill. You can hear it in the light clever touches of sounds that lurk in the music.
My helpful friend posed a question to me – ‘Frank, are you sure this is pop music?’. I said, ‘well yes in that it’s poppy’. I realise that this is a circular argument but it does sound poppy. On the other hand if you were to include it in a EP of songs with the same musical roots but didn’t all have a poppy feel, I might decide differently. The thing is that I can remember back to a time when something similar would get into the charts AND be on an album of songs by a serious artist who didn’t really do singles.
This is all getting a bit serious for a review of a track that is just the most sunny sounding delicious thing; that’ll have your feet tapping at the very least, and your ears will thank you for treating them to it. This is wonderful.
