By Kevin Scott
When you think dreampop, you think shimmering walls of guitars. Edinburgh’s three-piece Collar Up knock that wall down by using a piano as their main driver and the results offer up an album full of melodic charm. The band’s second release Ghosts, starts slowly, but the sound develops into something with more life than initially appears.
After a short instrumental introduction, ‘The Fear of Love’, starts up with said piano thudding along behind Stephen McClaren’s gently distorted vocal – one that emits subtle sentiment on every syllable. Thankfully, he retains his own accent – something that adds to the emotional impact of his style. It’s natural, a million miles away from the caricatured growl of Glasvegas’ James Allen.
The mood is distinctively melancholic, the piano following minor chord progressions on ‘In Love and Disgrace’, before the pace picks up. ‘Tonight’ is dark, with a disjointed jazzy feel to the piano, and it quickly passes. The album is going in the right direction, but doesn't quite reach its destination until ‘Short Term Memories’ and when it gets there it, you’ll be glad you came along with it. Drums build gradually through the first verse with the piano deeper down into mix. The track grows louder with each verse until McLaren is repeating "Short term memory" to a melody that remains with you long afterwards.
The sobering ‘Every Man For Themselves’ is a ballad to childhood: “I met myself today as an eight year old, I wondered if he’d accept me, I never asked him if the truth be told”, sings McClaren. They even have a game of football – not something that is often made to sound particularly heartbreaking, but it is, thanks in part to the humour employed. For all its whimsy and self-reflection, it’s not as serious as it appears on the surface. There is a permanent glow radiating, no matter how murky things may seem.
The album’s highlight is ‘A Jam Jar Full of Wasps’, the device of repeating of the title of the track over and over employed again, successfully. The drums are again uncomplicated, the piano driving momentum, McClaren with freedom to dominate the track, his accent more apparent here than anywhere else.
There are echoes of Beach House and inevitably some will draw comparisons with the Ben Folds Five. There aren't many bands who put pianos before guitars, even less so on the dreampop scene, so for that reason alone Collar Up are worth investigating.
