Stricken City
‘Songs About People I Know’
(Pure Groove Records)

Indie in the old-fashioned ‘look at us we design our own t-shirts and our guitarist learnt to play in a week’ sense, Stricken City’s sound recalls all sorts of lovely things put out by Rough Trade and Postcard in the mid-80s. ‘Songs About People I Know’ oozes with fun and spontaneity, like ‘Gifted’, an a cappella ditty recorded on a London bus, or the wonderfully bouncy, Orange Juice-esque ‘5 Metres Apart.’ Scratchy guitars are complemented by Rebekah Raa’s syrupy vocals, fragile and slow-burning like Alison from Young Marble Giants on ‘Sometimes I Love You’, yet hiccupy and Bjorky on ‘PS’. Abit more of this and we could easily fall in love with Stricken City. Kind of wonderful.

Sophie Thomsett