Portable Radio Carnaby, 1970. Blaupunkt, Germany. Via Hifi Archiv

Portable Radio Carnaby, 1970. Blaupunkt, Germany. Via Hifi Archiv

No other ‘small’ word carries so much baggage …

I mean, it’s only ‘pop’, right?

Light, frothy, ephemeral, throwaway even... It’s also a vanishing art: the days of the 60s, 70s or 80s when the charts were full of songs you could whistle have been dead and buried long since.

Now Portable Radio, a trio comprising Phil Anderson (Vocals / Guitar / Bass / Piano) and Mof Gimmers (Guitar / Vocals) and Robyn Gibson (Drums / Guitars) like latter day Baron Frankepstein’s  have raided the cobwebbed vaults to put together a melodic pop monster in their eponymous debut.

Those of a certain age (or with tastes for recondite pop history) will recognise the strands of DNA: the faux naïveté of Gilbert O’Sullivan, hints of the wryer bittersweet moments of Supertramp or even Genesis, a touch of Carnaby Street psychedelia, and wave after glorious wave of lush, surftastic Californian harmonies. Opener Hot Toddy establishes the GO’S-meets-Beach Boys vibe, the perfect 60s reverbed-up skittering drum fills, and slight air of lysergic trippiness that pervade the album. Darling Hold On adds some ELO glam-spangles before a Beatlesy breakdown into a full-on trancey fade out, while Should Have Bounced mixes in Ocean Colour Scene propulsive soul and old school synth.

The acid-spiked mop-top Worst Case Scenario features a lovely harmony guitar hook to counteract the Mersey melancholy of the chorus as well as a crisp dead stop, and the wistful For Absent Friends-feel of Rise Above is heightened by mellotron textures and George Martin brass band. Brassy notes (courtesy this time of synths) recur in the very short, very sweet Soft Cell-do-Louie Louie backwards 100-seconds of And I.

Peak O’Sullivan comes in the deceptively sunny waltz of Colour Me Impressed where school piano, recorder synth and mellotron are drenched in eye-wateringly sweet harmony and counterpoint vocals. The Switch adds a bit of Supergrass laddish bustle to the GO’S thread, while almost proggy mock-classical phrasing is matched with some God Only Knows multi-vox closing harmonies. After a swelling symphonic-synth-and-vox opening Everything Is Fine maintains the snare-driven upbeat Pulpy pulse, which peaks in another smoothly soulful but barbed Walk Of Shame. With rich mellotron strings underpinning a nostalgic Raindrops-Keep-Falling-On-My-Pussycat waltz, closer Kick Me Out could be a Bacharach-soundtrack outtake:, particularly in the quirky synth noodles, xylophone, snare salvos, and breathtaking a cappella close.

Light and frothy maybe, but there’s obviously a lot of thought and craft behind the songs and their arrangements and production (Plunger keep spotting new bits on every listen!) and they pull off the tricky feat of being fresh but leaving you feeling you already know them. Good melodic pop is notoriously hard to do ‘right’ but when you do a single song can define or encapsulate a summer, an afternoon, or a single kiss: when you finally get to leave the house this year, take Portable Radio with you.

Portable Radio is released on 12th March 2021 on Crimson Crow Records

Portable Radio Carnaby, 1970. Blaupunkt, Germany. Via Hifi Archiv