MARC VALENTINE – FUTURE OBSCURE

Future Obscure is the debut album from erstwhile Last Great Dreamers’ frontman Marc Valentine. As well as being cult power-pop-rockers - who, but for bad luck and bad timing, should have been massive -  the Dreamers have been one of my favourite bands for close to two-thirds of my life and almost certainly the band that I have seen the most over the years. And so I approached this album with some trepidation. I mean, what if this doesn’t measure up to the Dreamers?

First things first, in Denley Slade (drums), Steve Fielding (ex-Boys and Stiffs, bass), Richard Davies of the Dissidents (guitar) and sparkling newcomer Coby Wilson (guitar), Marc has assembled a cracking bunch of musicians. There are guest appearances from Matt Dangerfield of The Boys and Wreckless Eric and Dave Draper, whose credits include The Professionals and Wildhearts, produces.

Good as all that may be, it counts for nowt if the songs aren’t up to scratch. Well there’s no worries there. This is an album chockfull of singles. Musically, we have melodic, catchy as hell, power-pop anthems (Swiss Launderette, Mornington Avenue), country-rock meets 60s girl-group pop (Fade Out In Blue), driving rockers (Last Train Tonight, Break My Heart Anyway, Ghosts of Amsterdam), melancholia (Arcades) and Beatles-meets-Britpop (Electric Chains). Whilst all the songs are highly listenable, the standouts for me are the psych-tinged Linear Slopes, the rousing, Springsteenseque Broken Satellites and the Bowie-meets-Mott swagger of Death Is Overrated.