The Lightning Seeds - All I Want (Extended Version) (Ghetto, 1990)

Swirling indie pop gone mainstream.

Following on from the delights of 'Pure', 'All I Want' was fragile indie pop given a chart-pop makeover. The vocal is frail, the lyric is self-conscious and fey, but the backing has a sheen and lushness that you'd never have got budget for on Sarah.

Download The Lightning Seeds 'All I Want (Extended Version)' (indie pop mp3) (Box.net)

The Man From Delmonte - My Love Is Like A Gift You Can't Return (Bop Cassettes, 1989)

Sprightly indie pop wordsmithery.

Manchester's The Man From Delmonte shoulda been moderately successful, dealing in cute, wordy, melodic indiepop.

Excellently long-titled 'My Love Is Like A Gift You Can't Return' was their shot at cross-over hit, busting some 'Love Me Do' harmonica, rattling along, sounding like a twee version of The Smiths had they stuck with their skiffle influences.

Download The Man From Delmonte 'My Love Is Like A Gift You Can't Return' (indie pop, mp3) (Divshare)

Aztec Camera - Lost Outside The Tunnel (Postcard Version) (Postcard, 1980)

Bossa Nova version of the song that eventually graced 'High Land, Hard Rain'.

At first I thought this was a drum machine demo but it's just that the drums are incredibly tight at the start of this version recorded for the b-side of Aztec Camera's debut 7" on Postcard.

A giddy, Romantic swirl, 'Lost Outside The Tunnel' is Roddy Frame at his most melodramatic. A sizzling Latin rhythm is augmented with bouncy bass, lashings of Spanish guitar and Frame's impassioned croon.

Download Aztec Camera 'Lost Outside The Tunnel (Postcard Version)' (Postcard, indie, pop, mp3) (Box.net)

Venus - No. 1 Fan (Sweet Jesus) (PVC, 1994)

Wall Of Sound heavy proto-Britpop from Brum.

'Phonefreak Honey' by Sweet Jesus is a truly great lost single, a transgender Jesus & Mary Chain being pelted with candyfloss in a wind tunnel. Yes, that good.

After a few more singles and no success, singer/songwriter Ben Bentley reconfigured as Venus, slowed the tempo and got Phil Spector in to produce (in his dreams).

The result was 'No. 1 Fan' which has a wistful elegance and sounds like a demo for late period Suede, obsessed with fame and fandom. Less effects and artifice that Sweet Jesus but still a sweet tune.

Download Venus 'No. 1 Fan' (Sweet Jesus, Indie Pop, mp3) (Divshare)

Belle and Sebastian - Legal Man (Jeepster, 2000)

Indie Pop meets Northern Soul hipshaker.

This record passed me by first time round despite coming from Belle And Sebastian's golden period of dressing up and doing things their own unique way. I only discovered 'Legal Man's splendour when someone asked me to play it at their wedding a few years later.

So I gave it a spin and found that it was a perfect fusion of Northern Soul and Indie Pop with a sardonic lyric that borrowed heavily from the missives of the band's legal counsel.

Frug.

Download Belle and Sebastian 'Legal Man' (indie pop, Northern Soul, mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Stars - Elevator Love Letter (Setanta, 2003)

Cute electro indie pop gem.

'Elevator Love Letter' by Canada's Stars is a delightful cascade of sweet yearning and regret set to a gently clattering beat, swoons of synth and pulsing acoustic guitar.

Bittersweet with divine melodies, it has a kinship with the likes of The Postal Service and is four minutes of joy.

Download Stars - Elevator Love Letter (Arts & Crafts, Electropop, mp3 download) (Divshare)

The Field Mice - Annoint (Peel Session mp3) (1990)

Wonderful Peel Session track from the Field Mice-go-New Order era.

This track from a 1990 Peel Session sees The Field Mice fully-ensconced in their 'Missing The Moon' phase where a distinct New Order influence came into play. It adds a thrilling edge to their dreamy romanticism. And a gorgeously sonorous bass, of course.

It builds through a long instrumental opening, driven by simple drum machine and augmented with washes of guitar. The song displays a sonic ambition that leaves the, admittedly brilliant, tweeness of past glories behind. Lovely stuff.

Download The Field Mice 'Annoint (Peel Session)' (indie pop, Sarah Records, Peel Session, Field Mice mp3) (Mediafire)

Tahiti 80 - A Love From Outer Space (Tore Johansson Mix) (Atmosphériques, 2001)

AR Kane given a machine pop makeover. 

Tore Johansson, producer of The Cardigans and Saint Etienne's fantastic 'Good Humor' amongst other things, gave French indie poppers Tahiti 80 a machine-tooled, almost Ace of Base makeover on this AR Kane cover.

Some of the airy mystery of the original is lost but it's still has a beguiling, swirling romance and sounds like it was spun from pure sugar.

Download Tahiti 80 'A Love From Outer Space (Tore Johansson Mix)' (indie mp3) (Mediafire)

Tahiti 80 - Yellow Butterfly (Atmospheriques, 1999)

Divine, Stereolab-esque indie-Krautrock-pop.

Another lost gem, recently rediscovered. Tahiti 80 are a French band whose debut album 'Puzzle' dealt in a bright and breezy but nicely layered line in demure indie pop.

'Yellow Butterfly' is a simple pop song on the surface but beneath lies a web of interlocking instrumentation. It's decidedly Stereolab-esque in the way of 'French Disko'. The Krautrock-ing rhythms are augmented with a web of interlocking bass and drums but the melodies above are awash with sweet brass and vocals.

The b-side features a fairly faithful cover of The Left Banke's classic of baroque pop 'Desiree'. But that's one for another day...

Download Tahiti 80 'Yellow Butterfly' (Krautrock, indie pop mp3) (Divshare)

Ride - Chelsea Girl (Demo) (1989)

Sweeter, Buffalo Springfield-meets-The Field Mice version of the Ride classic.

Whither the blizzard of distortion and the maelstrom of drums? And vocals?

This demo version of Ride's 'Chelsea Girl' sounds like The Field Mice have just necked a bag of sherbet and washed it down with two litres of Sunny Delight.

Set against a polite drum machine beat, the song and melodies are present and correct. It's a sun-doused stroll, gentle and more plaintive where the single version is almost desperate.

All in all, very much in thrall to Sarah Records but the bent-strings and layers of guitars and arpeggios - to me, anyway - also suggest a degree of West Coast/Byrds/Buffalo Springfield about them.

Sweet.

Download Ride 'Chelsea Girl (Demo)' (indie Shoegaze mp3) (Mediafire)

The Cardigans 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' (Trampolene, 1994)

Black Sabbath given the saccharine indie-pop treatment. Works beautifully.

Crikey, this is nearly twenty years old. Gave myself a fright there.

Somehow, rendering classic Black Sabbath in a sweet, almost simpering indie pop carousel manner works perfectly. The malevolent revenge fantasy of the original is completely subsumed into the pastel coloured pop merry-go-round of The Cardigans' world.

Delightful.

Download The Cardigans 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' (indie pop, Black Sabbath cover, mp3) (Mediafire)

The Pooh Sticks 'The World Is Turning On' (Zoo, 1993)

Sweet, sugar-rush of indie pop joy.

The Pooh Sticks dealt in a tooth-rotting strain of indie-pop and found their way via C86 and a string of indie labels in the mid-to-late 1980s onto a major label. The results included this slice of frantic, sun-drenched buzzsaw pop.

The echoes can be heard in Teenage Fanclub, TPOBPAH and many more. It's proper songwriting, perfectly structured with great dynamics and a muscular rhythm section that provides an edge to the rush of indie pop vocals.

Beautiful.

Download The Pooh Sticks 'The World Is Turning On' (indie pop, C86, mp3) (Mediafire)

#indiechristmas - Brighter 'Christmas' (Sarah, 1991)

Dappled, sadcore classic from one of the great Sarah albums.

Surprisingly, not a Christmas number one in 1991 when it was released.

Beautiful pealing guitars and oh-so-fey vocals, gentle meandering melodies and just a hint of Christmas in its classic Sarah stye.

Download Brighter 'Christmas' (indie, twee mp3) (Mediafire)

Primal Scream 'Velocity Girl' (NME/Rough Trade, 1986)

The Scream in fey, Byrds-ian jangle mode.

You have to hand it to them - 'Velocity Girl' is 82 seconds of sweet, catchy, direct indie pop beauty.

Reverb-drenched drum simplicity, spiralling melody from the plectrum of Jim Beattie, fey vocals in praise of a girl "with vodka in her veins".

Perfection - though not a perfection that even hinted at the dub-dance-jazz-madness that they would eventually unleash with 'Screamadelica'.

Download Primal Scream 'Velocity Girl' (indie pop, mp3) (Mediafire)

Download the full NME C86 compilation over on the Archive:Live+Rare blog

New Music - Dive 'Corvalis' (Captured Tracks, 2011)

Heavily-delayed guitar and sweet melodies in this US indie-pop supergroup (sort of).

Dive is a Brooklyn side project (Beach Fossils, Smith Westerns) due to be released on the pretty reliable Captured Tracks label - Wild Nothing and Blouse have been reported herein previously.

'Corvalis' is the b-side of the upcoming single and it delivers cascades of tumbling, delayed guitar melodies over what sounds like a stand-up JAMC drumbeat and some oozing flute-y synths. 'Sometimes' is more New Order-y with an icy Factory blast underpinning the woozy, multitracked vocals.

Nice.

Download Dive 'Corvalis' (C86, indiepop, shoegaze, mp3) (via Stereogum)

Dum Dum Girls 'Bedroom Eyes' (Sub Pop, 2011)

Shimmering, smoother version of Shop Assistants-style indie pop.

Clearly in thrall to C86, The Field Mice and indie-pop in general, Dum Dum Girls recently released their second album on Sub Pop.

'Bedroom Eyes' is a taster therefrom and it blasts out of the traps with a buzzpop thrill worthy of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. Nice.

Download Dum Dum Girls 'Bedroom Eyes' (indie pop mp3) (via subpop.com)

Trophy Wife 'Canopy Shade' (Blessing Force, 2011)

Propulsive electro-pop with a translucent feel.

I'm expecting big things of the so-far wonderful Trophy Wife.

'Canopy Shade' sees them moving into early Depeche Mode territory whilst still maintaining their urgency. It was co-produced with Warp legends Plaid but there hasn't been significant fucking-up of the sleek lines of the Trophy Wife sound.

This is the lead track from a 10" EP - Bruxism - released on the Oxford label Blessing Force. 250 hand-numbered copies apparently so I'd move fast. The five tracks feature five different producers including Foals' Yannis Philippakis.

Great stuff.

The Impossibles 'The Drum' (Fontana, 1991)

Deceptively lackadaisical singalong pop from short-lived, under-exposed early 90s duo.

'The Drum' is a loping, circular, singalonga slice of festival pop. The Impossibles were a female duo who released a couple of corking singles in the early 90s before promptly disappearing.

After the more straightforward, sweeter 'How Do You Do It?' single they unleashed 'The Drum' which is more elaborate in its arrangement and came backed with an Andrew Weatherall remix for good measure.

The song lopes along like a jalloppy leaking illicit booze down a dusty, country track, stoned locals hanging out of the windows. The stream of consciousness lyrics, wrapped up into neatly entwined female harmonies, making them squint, perplexed into the blazing sun, trying inadequately to keep up with the meaning.

Download it now while the sun still shines.

Download The Impossibles 'The Drum' (indie alternative, mp3) (Mediafire)

The Springfields 'Tranquil' (Seminal Twang, 1991)

More jingly-jangly powerpop-meets-twee wonderment from Ric Menck and Pauly Chastain's pre-Velvet Crush band.

'Tranquil' was released in the same burst of activity that saw them issue forth the 'Wonder' 7" on Sarah Records. This time it was a 7" on the excellently-named Seminal Twang label - which also put out a wonderful 7" by Melody Dog.

The A-side - 'Tranquil' - is a beat-driven, head-lolling slice of fey, twee pop that laments the likelihood that singer Ric Menck isn't going to Get The Girl. "I'll spend all of my life, thinking about her" goes the chorus' 12-string-enhanced refrain.

To add to the Primal Scream homage on their 'Wonder' 7" and the cover The Pastels' 'A Million Tears' on the b-side, 'Tranquil' is a cover of a song by The Clouds (you can get it over on the Take The Pills blog). The Springfields must have done a Masters in Scottish Indie Pop as The Clouds, it turns out, were a band featuring Norman Blake who was later, of course, to end up 1) in Teenage Fanclub and 2) on Creation Records alongside Ric Menck and Paul Chastain's Velvet Crush. Small Indie world...

Anyway, 'Tranquil' is anything but and it hurtles along, winding up to climax with a wonderful two-note guitar solo and is gone.

Sweet.

Download The Springfields 'Tranquil' (indie pop mp3, Mediafire)

New Music - Class Actress 'Keep You' (Car Park, 2011)

Elegant and icy earworm from the label that brought you Toro Y Moi.

Stumbled across this on one of those random blog trawls that I do from time to time, ending up at the Carpark Records site.

Class Actress serve up a slice gorgeously, austere of chill-wave electronic indie pop that sounds like Karen O fronting Soft Cell or early Depeche Mode. After a couple of listens it had burrowed its way into my brain and now I can't get it out.

Class Actress is apparently a duo, one of whom is a drama "major" from LA, the other is a psychoanalyst-in-training. Cool backstory...

Anyways, until their debut album ('Rapprocher') is released in October, you can find out more (but not much more) about Class Actress at their Tumblr page.

Stream/download 'Keep You' by Class Actress (indie electronic pop)


Or Watch the video for 'Keep You' on Youtube.