Jangly Scottish cult band of Sarah Records fame continue to make swooning guitar pop on their eighth album, Glasgow’s The Orchids have been making heartfelt, jangly indie pop for more than three decades, releasing records most famously on the legendary indie label Sarah Records. It’s been a while since they’ve released an album eight years, in acrual fact
But they are back with their seventh album titled “Dreaming Kind” due out September 2nd via Skep Wax (the label run by their former Sarah labelmates Amelia Fletcher and David Pursey of Heavenly/The Catenary Wires).
The band, which still includes frontman James Hackett, guitarist John Scally, drummer Chris Quinn, along with keyboardist Ian Carmichael, have managed to stay remarkably, satisfyingly consistent over the years, only making records when inspiration strikes them. “Dreaming Kind” definitely feels inspired, with windswept and winsome songs set to arrangements that swing between jangly and delicate, and lush and jazzy. Some songs, like “I Never Thought I Was Clever,” are both. If you wished that bands still made swooning, heart-on-the-sleeve guitar pop a la Aztec Camera and The Blue Nile, The Orchids are waving to you saying, “we’re right here.”
The Orchids were musically one of the most interesting Sarah bands and certainly developed far more on that label than any band. Starting with a melancholy guitar pop sound on “Lyceum” and contemporaneous singles, they moved on to become more keyboard and sample/effects-based for their second and third albums, “Unholy Soul” and “Striving For the Lazy Perfection”, developing a more electronic sound, possibly as a result of their producer, Ian Carmichael, who was a member of dance band One Dove.
“Dreaming Kind” by The Orchids released on https://www.skepwax.com– Sept 2022.
The Fat Angel Sings 