There are all sorts of things to be found right under your nose. Your feet, for example, but we are musing on matters musical so onwards and directly upwards to “Europa Erotica” by Glasgow’s own Bobo & The Demeraras.
I would like to say that I know a thing or two about Bobo & The Demeraras but, let’s face it, I don’t. No matter, for there are many things that have escaped my attention yet it is also clear that the now trendy retro sounds have not escaped the attention of this band for, awash as this album is with analogue synth sounds and the click track drums, it also an album that is not short on style, real songs and emotional direction.
OK, so how does this album roll? The soundbites from sources educational and no doubt royalty free are here aplenty. The designer melancholy likewise approaches overdose. The pseudo erotica is, of course, pretty much inevitable. That means that the beard scratchers will surely be satisfied with all that is here. What, however, is there for the rest of us who smoke, drink Lidl lager and hate cats?
Well, there are the songs. Retro as they are, there are real songs here with “Devotchka” and “Next To Your Love”, in particular, managing the tricky task of sounding familiar whilst not actually being a cheap respray of someone else’s past glories. Credit is therefore due to Bobo & The Demeraras for stamping their album with so much more than the expected mediocrity and that makes “Europa Erotica” the best album by a Glasgow band that I have heard this year.