Fantastically poppy pop music from Aberfeldy. If Young Forever had come out in 1984, then surely Smash Hits would have got everyone in the band to fill out questionnaire's about their favourite colour, they've had become Top of the Pops regulars, and soon been as big as Haircut 100.
But it didn't, it came out in 2004. It reminds me of the days when I used to listen to BBC 6 Music for as many hours each day as I do each week now. So I kept abreast of all the new indie happenings, and occasionally something would jump out at me, like Aberfeldy's wonderful Heliopolis by Night. They did interviews and sessions on 6, too. Still, the 6 audience in those days was probably under the 250,000 mark, and heavily skewed towards 30-something nerdy blokes like me — not the young teen and pre-teen girls that, as I said before, you feel ought to have been Aberfeldy's natural constituency.
Mind you, I guess having an anatomically correct lion on the cover didn't help much with marketing to that market segment either. (I say it's anatomically correct, but I may be wrong: I don't claim authoritative knowledge of lions' genitalia.)
Via Wikipedia I checked out the reviews, and they mostly agreed with my enthusiasm. Here's allmusic
There is no reason these kids couldn't become the next Norah Jones. Or the next Modest Mouse [sic]. Someone has to be, after all. Get in on the ground floor and help start the groundswell of support this record and Aberfeldy truly deserve. It holds all the magic, charm, heart, and beauty that make for the best pop, both indie and major-label. Tell all your friends.
The exception to this is the Pitchfork review, which is very sniffy, but slightly undermined by the writer not being able to remember the band leader's name consistently all the way to the end.
When I first mentioned this album, I said it had been recorded with with just one or two mics. Turns out it was one. So it's in mono. Must have been hellish to record — but presumably didn't take long to mix.
MusicBrainz entry for this album
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