- I think Tigertown might be the summery indie-pop band that breaks my brain. Literally everything I find objectionable, emotionally shallow or creatively bankrupt about the whole genre can be found somewhere in their repertoire. That’s not really the problem though. I...I think I like them.

Their latest EP is less like a record and more like an ammunition-clip of weaponised warm-pop sugar, each song within an optimised second or two of three minutes and twenty seconds, with verses filed down and choruses arranged nearly end-to-end, for maximum, collateral catchiness. Twee vox, teflon production, content that has the emotional complexity of a twinkie. That’s before we get to the woah-oh-ohhhs!

Saying all this is like going to confession and vomiting forth a litany of my own sins, because - lord help me - this band is a guilty pleasure. It all began with that advance single Is This What You Came Here For? There’s a purity to this kind of pop craft, the kind of thing which unites the wonderfully warm fuzz of the synthesisers with the unforgettable cheese of Giorgio Moroder. It might be the antithesis of everything I usually choose to listen to, but if you’re gonna be shamelessly pop, this is probably the way to do it: infusing a sort of pop classicism into the most vacuous sounds of today.

You can hear it at work in the shuffle rock riff of Back In Time, giving it the classic 80's grooves of a Tears For Fears anthem. Very effective. Bee Gees close vocal harmonies soar through the endless choruses of the EP’s title track. There’s a kind of jostle for place going on between The Carpenters and an Eagles production sound on opener, Weary One and to finish it all off, the kids stay closer to their own epoch for their finale, channeling the twee-folk of Julia Stone.

These references may be their own kind of smarts, or they may just be me trying desperately to justify my grimly out of place, thirty-something presence in the crowd of bouncing tweenies at a Tigertown gig. Whatever, this is a hard-working band, astutely doing everything they can to take it to the next level in one of the world’s most cutthroat industries. I’ll be very surprised if they aren’t troubling me for a long time to come.

- Chris Cobcroft.