Jollification – Q Review 1994

The third instalment of Ian Broudie’s five-year plan to reshape pop music is every bit as strong as both predecessors Cloudcuckooland and Sense. His softly spoken pop vignettes have stealthily lockpicked the oak-panelled doors of mainstream acceptance and it can only be a matter of time before Broudie is swapping dressing rooms with Marti Pellow. The bespectacled Scouser, a rare hybrid of Neil Tennant and early John Lennon, has hit upon a blindingly attractive pop formula which is predicated upon instantly accessible, priceless melodies which run through the album like a crystalline watermark. Any of these 10 songs would lord it imperiously atop the singles pile but the pick of a fine bunch are Perfect’s intensely addictive pop tune, My Best Day’s hopscotch beat and tender vocal and closing songs Punch & Judy and Telling Tales with their combination of incongruous hip-hop beats, moptopped vocals and spectral piano.

Q Magazine – Rating: 4 out of 5