I've been dying to tell you about this album for quite a while. The Shop Window are from Maidstone, but the five piece have made their name as Jangle Poppers rather than the usual Medway scene's dalliance with Psych Pop.
Their third album is a double and quite a herculean affair that is divided into two, Days And Dream. Days covers the Jangle Pop that you know, love and sort of expect and boy does it Jangle. However, decades are crossed magnificently.
Days covers everything from Merseybeat to the Jangle explosion of the UK 80s. From the US rocked up 90s version to the modern version dominated by the likes of Eyelids and of course pointers to Byrds. It does at times feel a bit Marr and Squire, even Ride, but is so beautifully done.
However, it is never set in its ways. It's A High adds a wonderful Twang and uses Brass well as Northern Uproar used to do. Beyond The Stars gets close to Brit Pop. Live To Love & Love Your Life is a gentle anthem that adds more tasteful Brass.
Dream is very different, magnificently so, almost experimental. Blues is a song that I've become very familiar, it chimes, but is more Pop Rock in which the vocal compliments the instrumentally so well. Loneliness sounds very Camp Fire.
A World Where We Remain is much moodier, melancholic and brooding.Happy Now continues that feel. Then there is the closer, Made In Heaven, all 7 minutes of it. More electronic, a song that grips you and builds into a massive soundscape that is almost hypnotic. A splendid listen.
So two very different halves make up Daysdream. One is the jaunty joy that Jangle should and does bring. The other has more of a darker shoegaze vibe in which the Jangle is still around, but more in the background. This is an album that is ambitious and yet so easy to like. Top Notch!
You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl, CD and as a download.
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