Single Suggestion: Lilygreen and Maguire ~ Dear Photograph

The debut album from amazing pop duo Lilygreen & Maguire has been a long time coming. They burst onto the scene last year with a trio of brilliant singles (including the vibrant Come On Get Higher which I wrote about here) and the promise of an album to follow. Criminally, Great Britain did not send those tunes into the top 40 (and higher) where they absolutely belonged but that hasn't stopped our intrepid heroes from perfecting their craft - they've been busy touring our fair nation with some of the country's biggest pop stars as well as building their already substantial following (30,000 tweeters and counting!) through a number of innovative you tube covers and some high profile busking (that puts the toothless guy singing Goodbye Yellow Brick Road outside Birmingham New Street station to shame. TO SHAME). Frankly, it's nigh on impossible not to be won over by this delightful twosome and their sparkling brand of feel-good, energetic pop music. They've just announced the release date of their debut album (appropriately titled "Have A Good Time All The Time" - out November 4th of this very year. Perfect Christmas gift if you ask me) and a quick scour through their youtube page found me a lovely acoustic version of their most recent song Dear Photograph which serves as the most lovely precursor as to what is coming from the fellas. It's a more restrained, slower tempo than their previous singles but is no less lovely for it - in fact, shows a more tender delicate side to the chaps through some beautiful lyrics that weave a charming narrative saturated with pensive sentimentality. The song details those times where you look back through the pictures of your life and remember those times that have been absolutely wonderful as well as those times that have been a struggle with no light at the end of the tunnel. The lilting refrain of "dear photograph/we'll make it through" is a stark, uplifting reminder that bad times pass and we emerge stronger - and is the perfect pick me up when you are having a bad day. Set around just the gentle strumming of their guitars, it's the boys voices that give the song it's heart and soul. Individually and together, they give such passion and beauty to the delicate words that it gives the song syntax a firm foundation for that gently soaring chorus to have long lasting impact on the listener. The falsettos are definitely a large part of this and are exquisitely & effortlessly performed. It's all so natural that it draws you in, making it rather intimate and personal. The lads have proved they can do big, booming chant-a-long anthems - this definitely highlights further their undeniable talent for writing & performing. This absolutely stands up next to radio's biggest hits and deserves to be one of them...

(There is an album sampler on line which I will return to shortly - I will say that the title is perfect for this body of work and nothing short of genius. View it here and make the wait til November 4th even more agonising. It's gonna be one rollicking winter thanks to Lilygreen and Maguire :D)