After recording two astonishingly beautiful singles,
Red Sleeping Beauty
and
Frans Hals
, the first album by
McCarthy
is a slice of three-minute, three-chord
guitar pop
reminiscent of
the Byrds
. The wonderful, if slightly
twee
, jangly guitars and upbeat drumming support
Malcolm Eden
's rather weedy vocals. While this form of
indie pop
was widespread in '80s underground Britain,
brought left-wing anarchist politics to the genre. Religion is attacked in
"God Made the Virus,"
while the return of Victorian values espoused by
Margaret Thatcher
are compared to medieval oppression in
"In the Dark Times."
While this album may not be musically groundbreaking, if you're looking for perfect
pop
, you would be hard-pressed to find better than this album. ~ Christian Smillie