It's difficult to review Emma Pollock without mentioning her former band The Delgados at least once, so I will.
With that out of the way, Paper and Glue is the third single from Pollock's debut album, the really, really rather excellent Watch The Fireworks. As with the rest of her debut, Paper and Glue eschews her former band's elaborate orchestrations for a more trad guitar, drums n'bass sound.
One thing that hasn't changed, though, is Pollock's winning way with a chord change: Paper and Glue leads the listener through a labyrinth of dazzling key changes not seen since, well, the last record from a certain Glaswegian band. In making the leap from bandmember to centerstage Pollock echoes Kristen Hersh, who managed to extract everything that was great about Throwing Muses as a band and channel it into her solo work. There may not be any more Delgados records to look forward to, but as long as we have Pollock and songs as strong as this one, life doesn't seem so bad.
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