Album Reviews

Album Review: Saturday Morning Pictures – It’s Cool To Hate The Singer (Snapper Music)

By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 8 December 2008

It IS cool to hate the singer. Prancing around up there, the focus of all that attention and clearly revelling in it. Even in an innocent game of Rock Band, if one person repeatedly goes for the microphone, it’s a pretty good indicator they fancy themselves a little too much. This particular singer should be quite easy to hate as recipients of scournful evaluations go, but for some reason I can’t help but love the little tyke. His nasal delivery commits that most heinous of crimes; sounding like he’s from California when in reality he lives in that most rock n roll of places – Surrey. The tweeness of the songs should really aggravate such a bitter man as myself, but for some reason there’s something alluring in this sickly sweet release. Sounding like an emo Jamie Cullum who is more concerned with sunshine than suave, Saturday Morning Pictures are shamelessly pop. And not the annoying bubblegum kind either, the good kind that Take That are currently throwing back at the charts with surprising success. Indeed by the time most of these songs climax, complete with resplendent horn sections, I can’t help but picture the end to their video ‘Shine’, or think the song should be accompanied by the Simpson’s couch gag where the entire cast end up in a huge kick line. There is no doubt as to the songwriting skills on display here; grandiose arrangements add sprinklings of brass and strings to good effect, whilst a walking jazz bassline keeps the whole thing swinging nicely. If, like me, you can’t resist a bit of pop indulgence, you could definitely do worse than this to brighten up your wintry evenings. ME

Buy from iTunes
Buy from Amazon