Scottish people are especially sensitive folk, you know. Don't believe me? Well, just look at the amount of particularly twee bands they've churned out over the years; Orange Juice, Belle and Sebastian, Camera Obscura.. the list goes on. Perhaps it's because their musical heritage borrows frequently from soul and folk; perhaps they just have a natural disposition to self-deprecate. Either way, Aberfeldy are Scottish, and thus fall somewhere between Rabbie Burns-delicacy and Irn-Bru-hard; although for their second album, Do Whatever Turns You On, they've dropped the low-budget recording technique (i.e. one microphone) that was used on their charismatic debut, Young Forever. One could argue that perhaps giving their style and production technique a polish wasn't completely necessary, and that this is ultimately to their detriment; but nonetheless, gone are the quirky paeans to Vegetarian Restaurants and Surly Girls, now replaced by a sixties sunny-pop blueprint. The Edinburgh five-piece, led by songwriter and vocalist Riley Briggs, are more than adept at creating summer pop anthems with a sombre edge, yet their reluctance to stray too far from the path is disheartening. Briggs's voice is certainly gorgeously sweet and emotive (particularly on alluring opener Someone Like You and downbeat sloucher There You Go) and the female duo who provide shimmering backing harmonies on request are captivating; but single Hypnotised borrows from the same school of Californian charm as The Magic Numbers do - as does power-pop anthem 1970s, and the nursery-rhyme simplicity of Whatever Turns You On. Where they stand head and shoulders above their contemporaries, though, is on the superb Uptight, which softly swings along until an 80s synth-fest is unleashed upon it midway, and on the uptempo pop-noir track Poetry. It's very possible that you'll lose interest by the time downbeat closer Turn Me Towards the Light loiters around, but it won't really matter; Do Whatever Turns You On is still one of the most jubilantly sun-kissed albums you'll hear all summer.
