So an all too fleeting glimpse of the band at last year's End of the Road Festival is finally followed up with me getting my hands on a record, and Fanfarlo sound just as splendid as they did then in the very last song of their set.
Swedish pop is beginning to be a much abused term in the national press, as always only its commercially-digestible litter making it through to grab radio airplay and sponsored tour slots, but this is a fine reminder of all that's so great about its teeming underground.
Shimmering keyboards like Grandaddy sliding across the ice, Simon's vocals with that melancholy poignancy of the downbeat indie poet singing into the sun, a steady percussion which rises with the beats of your heart into a sumptuous chorus, Fire Escape is a jangling slice of pure pop musings to leave you drooling like the finest Pastels slices. Any summer compilation would be bare without it.
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