The Pearlfishers - Love & Other Hopeless Things (2019) [Hi-Res]

They’re back – and they’re back with a bang! Five years after their last album Open Up Your Colouring Book, Glasgow’s magnificent Pearlfishers return with a brand new album. It’s their eighth on Marina Records – a superb comeback full of masterful, classic pop music, driven by main man David Scott’s exceptional songwriting and arrangements. The album kickstarts with its beautiful title track – a song in the tradition of British songwriters like Paddy McAloon and Michael Head – about ordinary people dreaming and drowning in the big city. “Another foggy Monday morning / Sail the ferry to town / And think of all the people’s dreams...”. The song is led by a Bacharach-like flugel horn motif played by Colin Steele who recorded an entire album of Pearlfishers songs in terrific jazz arrangements: Diving For Pearls. Love and Other Hopeless Things also features a beautiful string quartet which recalls the graceful understatement of George Martin’s classic pop arrangements.

David Scott, guitars, bass, piano, keyboards, mandolin, vocals
Jamie Gash, drums, backing vocals
Becci Wallace, vocals
Stuart Kidd, backing vocals
Madaleine Pritchard, backing vocals
Stefanie Black, backing vocals
Mr Derek Star, percussion
Dee Bahl, bass
Colin Steele, trumpet, flugelhorn
Susan Appelbe, cello
Katie Rush, violin

Recorded at Gorbals Sound, UWS Ayr Campus and on the Fruitmobile
Engineered by Kevin Burleigh, Ludovic Barrier and David Scott
Additional engineering by Robin Woods
Mastered by Bo Kondren at Calyx
Produced and arranged by David Scott