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David McCormack And The Polaroids | The Truth About Love (Laughing Outlaw)
I naturally thought this lot must be Pulp imitators. You know, it happens. Look at the Australian Pink Floyd. But, hey, David McCormack etc are not a tribute band. Second track, Who Can It Be?, with its off-kilter harmonies, semi-tuneful melodica (now there's an instrument I had forgotten about) and shuffle rhythm sure isn't Pulp. Indeed, 'The Truth About Love' is like one of those compendium of games you used to get for Christmas...it's a bit of everything. You might not play all the games, but you will have some good fun all the same. A lot of 'The Truth...' works, a few tracks don't, but on balance it's a success. The more you get into this intriguing album the more you realise he's filtered his favourite stuff through a glass darkly, or at least mistily. There's a quirky Englishness about this. Yes, there's a bit of Pulp, mid-period Kinks, Northern Soul, The Animals and even a string-drenched big ballad called Liquor Store. Sometimes, throwing all kinds of styles at the recording studio wall and seeing what sticks can end in disaster, but, against the odds, McCormack pulls it off.

John Stacey
October 2005

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