I have fond memories of The Delgados, their discordant kind of melodies being one of the first things that dragged me as an overgrown nipper away from what I was spoon-fed on the airwaves (or the airwaves that weren't governed by John Peel).
They were of a generation of bands whose legacy is still pulsing today in Scotland and beyond, a legacy which the debut single from ex-Delgados frontlady Emma Pollock does no harm at all. I remember it now, the way they built in obtuse shapes to crescendos of whirling pop beauty, and Adrenaline threatens with the best of them, keeping you tantalisingly on the edge for that multiple-climax, beatific Delgados experience.
Pollock's voice is still sweet, unassuming and underplayed, and few will embrace orchestral pop with this kind of excitement and charm. Adrenaline's B-side, A Glorious Day, is a poem set to pastoral acoustic guitar, alternately lovely and trickling like a mountain lake on a summer’s day. Her band might have slipped into the distance, but it's great to see Pollock still ploughing inspired furrows.
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