AMG Review of Pull Me In

Stewart Mason
All Music Guide

The second album by the Edinburgh pop trio Splendid (not to be confused with the U.S.-Australian duo Splendid fronted by ex-Frente! singer Angie Hart) sounds like it should have come out in 1984, not 2000, and on one of the now-legendary indies of that era, like Factory Benelux, Les Disques du Crepuscule, or Cherry Red. Shimmering indie pop from the days when that meant bowl-haired kids awkwardly posing in anoraks and making gloriously unaffected, semi-naïve guitar pop with artless but undeniably affecting harmonies, Pull Me In sounds like the sort of album that, in an alternate universe, could be huge. Singer/guitarist Alan Windram isn't much of a lyricist, but his melodies are as good as anything from his fellow Scots Teenage Fanclub or the Pearlfishers, especially the soaring opener "The Godfather Part III." The tunes jangle along pleasantly, and while hardly earthshaking, Pull Me In is unfailingly catchy and tuneful pop.