Aerial - Activities Of Daily Living

 

The return of Aerial is something to be celebrated. They don't make 'em that often, this being the third in 23 years. They emerged in that late 90s Scottish scene with a 2001 debut. The follow up, Why Don't They Teach Heartbreak At School was Goldmine's 2014 Album Of The Year and is an album that I continually play. 

Back with Duncan Cameron of Travis and Teenage Fanclub fame producing, this is essential Power Pop of the highest order and that is something that you get to say as often as you used to. Aerial also manage to straddle the genre.

Essentially the feel matches the best of American Power Pop from the late 70s to now. But the key is that the band can sound like Feeder, Teenage Fanclub, Fountains Of Wayne or Busted. Their appeal can be universal and they are wrapped in harmony and melody as well as, if not better than, any Scottish Guitar Pop band can.

The band are best known for their pace and there is plenty here to prove that. Thet even sound like The Posies on An Encore And A Cover Song. Cadence is more than a little easy Weezer and Bad Tattoo reveals how they can integrate Beach Boys harmonies into Guitar Pop.

Pixelated Youth is classic 90s College Power Pop and may be my favourite here, but I'm also aware of how great the band are at slowing things down. Run These Lights and Silversand being the best examples. More important than anything is that Aerial have not lost their chops. I can think of no band better at what they do.

There is also a general feeling that Brits don't take to this sort of Power Pop much. The interest since the album was announced proves that opinion is misguided. If you are good enough, people will come. The UK scene has become incredibly regional, but this can be an album to partially ignite the interest in the genre. Magnificent!

The album can be listened to and bought everywhere. Most notably from Aerial's website here. It is available on vinyl and you can find it via the following links here. You can also listen to the whole album without all the signing up nonsense here.

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