Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 27/02/06
Label: EMI

A strange thing happened when The Magic Numbers unexpectedly found fame. Rather than accept the hirsute four-some as a charming one-off, the suits running the music industry from a bunker three miles under the Barfly in Chalk Farm made a connection with the success of Belle & Sebastian and decided that indie pop was clearly the Next Big Thing. A&Rs were then despatched to the coffee houses and art house cinemas of the nation with strict instructions: "Don't come back until you've signed something sensitive! Bring me cardigans, bring me twee!"

Hence Simon Fuller snapping up The Boy Least Likely To, a sweet pop duo from Wendover. And hence, you imagine, EMI picking up The Research, a sweet pop trio from Wakefield. But whereas Simon Fuller's first step was to put The Boy Least Likely To on a James Blunt support tour (shattering any hard won indie cred in an instant), The Research seem unaffected by the transition. They still play magical gigs in pub back rooms. And their songs are still glorious Casio tone jingles that sound like they live in a world far removed from playlist meetings and market demographics.

They've managed to retain their identity because, essentially, The Research - singer Russell, bassist Georgia and drummer Sarah - are a deeply eccentric group. You couldn't try and smooth off the rough edges because there aren't any - these are sweet, naïve, open-hearted songs in primary colours, played on a keyboard that reputedly cost £9 from Cash Converters, and accompanied by the kind of la-la-las and gentle harmonies that usually crop up on children's TV. But you also couldn't sell this as dippy kids' pop, because at its core this is a record of heartbreak and devotion, an adult album with a tear in its sparkling eye.

"The Way You Used To Smile", for example, is rinky dinky cute, but it's a classic break-up song ("I had headphones on, I couldn't hear the phone ringing, I was a jerk and now you're gone, In my defence I was singing about you…"). "Lonely Hearts Still Beat The Same" recalls the sumptuously melancholic alt. pop of Papas Fritas (whose Pop Has Freed Us motto definitely applies here), while "I Love You But…" tackles fear of love, utterly fragile and exposed ("There won't be a wedding until my hands stop shaking.")

A nudge in the wrong direction and this would be too saccharine for comfort. A nudge towards the mainstream and the edge (and the point) would be lost. But right where they are now, writing tiny songs on their little keyboard and casually summing up love in the process ("I bet if we kissed, the swings would freeze in motion"), The Research are all you could want from a homegrown, industry sponsored pop group.

    by Ian Watson