Since Amelia Fletcher’s current band Tender Trap resurfaced early last year after a lengthy hiatus, they have been a very exciting proposition indeed. The addition of Katrina Dixon on drums (stand-up, in true c86 style) and Elizabeth Morris (of the ever wonderful Allo, Darlin’) appears to have given them a real shot in the arm, judging by their recent live shows. To further this notion, Tender Trap MK2 have released two wonderful singles in the last year – the fizzy Fireworks (backed by the even better Grand National) and Girls With Guns, which you can download for free from FortunaPOP! here. In my opinion, the new songs trump everything they’ve done before and are closer to the sound of Talulah Gosh and Heavenly.

The 3rd Tender Trap album, entitled Dansette Dansette, will be landing soon. Be sure to check out it’s wonderful Chris Summerlin-designed artwork here.

Released in 1988, A Bit Of The Other is a compilation of super lo-fi Pastels promo films. All of them (bar Crawl Babies) were directed by one-time member of the Television Personalities Mark Flunder. The Pastels are one of my all-time favourite bands and probably the one that had the most influence over the direction my music taste went in the last decade. A Bit Of The Other is a great insight into my favourite era of the band and features lots of wonderful songs such as Comin’ Through, Truck Train Tractor and Automatically Yours.

This weekend, my decidedly un-pop hometown of Belfast was graced by the man who arguably started it all. Of course, i’m talking about the great Edwyn Collins. With his seminal band Orange Juice and the label he co-founded – Postcard Records, Mr. Collins set the template for the subsequent indiepop/c86/twee/whatever movement. Besides all that, he wrote some amazing songs, many of which he sang brilliantly on Friday night in the Black Box. Now, it’s been hard to talk about Edwyn Collins from 2005 onwards and not mention the harrowing brain hemorrhages he suffered but rather than talk about that at any great length, I recommend you read the book written by his partner Grace Maxwell – Falling And Laughing: The Restoration Of Edwyn Collins, which I purchased on Friday night after a talk by Grace (prior to Edwyn’s show).

Accompanied by a 4 piece band – 3 acoustic guitars and keyboard, it was a stripped-down affair. After being introduced by the compère as “the man who invented indie” (hard to argue, really), opening proceedings was Orange Juice’s beloved debut single – Falling And Laughing, which sounded glorious with the acoustic back-up.

For the next 90 minutes or so, we were treated to many classics from the Orange Juice catalogue, including Dying Day, Poor Old Soul, What Presence?! and Consolation Prize. Even the funky Rip It Up and Edwyn’s huge ’90s solo hit A Girl Like You worked with the acoustic backing, the former well-recieved by the very appreciative audience (particularly the sax solo by the keyboard player). The most poignant moment of the show came when Edwyn sang Home Again from his last album which although written before his illness, took on special meaning afterwards (as mentioned by Grace Maxwell during her talk). The audience acknowledged this by applauding when Edwyn began singing it.

Despite needing a walking stick to get around, Edwyn even walked off and on the stage prior to the encore, showing he’s still every bit a showman. He finished the show with the Orange Juice favourite and indie classic (a Sarah Records band named themselves after it, for crying out loud!) – Blue Boy. A great end to a great show.

Just like 2006, Camera Obscura were very much my band of the year.

Let’s Get Out Of This Country – their previous album before this year’s My Maudlin Career, is one of my favourite pop albums of all-time and one that I have strong a sentimental attachment to. It came into my life at a transitional time full of new experiences and adventures. I’ll never forget the first time I heard Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken on late night MTV2 (bring back 120 Minutes dammit!), a few days before my first trip to Singapore in October 2006. Although I was already aware of Camera Obscura and owned their Underachievers, Please Try Harder album, I wasn’t particularly a fan until that night. Subsequently, I listened to Lloyd… many, many times on my trip and when I finally heard the album when I got home (I had no way of listening to CDs in Asia), I instantly loved it.

My Maudlin Career didn’t have the same immediate effect on me but when I eventually fell for it, I fell for it hard. It became the soundtrack to my summer, and I will always associate it with cycling in the evening sun.

For christmas, Camera Obscura released a new 7″ single which is a double A side of The Blizzard (a cover of a song by an old country singer called Jim Reeves, who got namedropped on the first Half Man Half Biscuit album) and Swans from the album. As a christmas gift, they’ve put The Blizzard up for free download here. Enjoy and I hope you all had a wonderful christmas!