I thought I had posted ‘Wild Pendulum’, the album Trashcan Sinatras released in 2016, on here, but now I see that I did not. And that seems strange, because I have always liked the Scottish band a great deal. Especially ‘Cake’, the superb album they debuted with in 1990. It featured the brilliant “Obscurity Knows”, one of my favourite songs of the nineties. Their next two records were not bad either. But the truth is that they never enjoyed as much success as other bands of their generation. That has not stopped them from releasing albums regularly and touring from time to time, though. Which brings us to this new record they have just released.
‘Ever The Optimist’ is a rather curious record. Mainly because the members of Trashcan Sinatras were never together in the same room while recording its songs. It is not that they do not get along; they simply live in different parts of the world. So everything was done by exchanging files online. They did, however, have a producer directing the whole operation: none other than Paul Savage of The Delgados. They even brought in the occasional guest. There is Green Gartside of Scritti Politti, playing harmonica on “Hold On To Today”, a thoroughly elegant ballad. And Traceyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura, who joins Francis Reader for a duet on the excellent “Bad Husband”. I suppose that, thanks to all this, it never really sounds as though it was recorded at a distance.
Trashcan Sinatras have always had a special gift for writing songs that sit halfway between indie pop and its most elegant form. This record offers plenty of evidence. You only need to hear the title track, which opens the album by flooding everything with an exuberant rush of pop built from guitars, piano and organ; the combination works perfectly. That same exuberance also surfaces in “Melodramatic”, though this time they lean more heavily into the guitars. And it sounds wonderful. So does “The Bitter End”, which takes us straight into pure Teenage Fanclub territory. And if we are talking about vibrant pop, “The Associated Funk” also deserves a mention, with electronics entering the picture to create a track full of grandeur. It may be slightly disorienting at first, but it ultimately proves very effective.
Although guitar pop is what they do best, as the catchy “Games For The ZX Spectrum” shows, they also head down other paths here. And that is where the record becomes a little more uneven. They get it right with the playful pop of “A View From Nowhere”, which is a delightful song, and with the classic pop-rock balladry of “Birds I Couldn’t Identify”. When they attempt something stranger and almost psychedelic, however, as on “Rome”, they come crashing down. Fortunately, the album leaves a very good final impression by closing with an epic and moving ballad in “Learning To Love Your Ghost”.
Score: 77/100