Although they were never in the premier league of Britpop, the Supernaturals still managed to carve out a small niche for themselves with their sweet but sour power pop. Now their frontman James McColl is focusing his energies on The Hussy's, a six-piece peddling, you've guessed it, striking power pop. McColl leaves most of the vocals to the striking presence of Fili, a husky voiced blonde who has indie pin up written all over her. Luckily, the band's tunes are decent enough as well, with bits and pieces of ska, Motown and even some dodgy 80's esque keyboards augmenting the expected bouncy guitar pop and Fili's strong vocals. Although they veer too close to the cod reggae and ska lite of acts likes Madness at times, there's enough shown from the Hussy's to suggest good things lie in their future.
Although the Hussy's have a cheerful zest to their songs, they pale when placed next to Scouting For Girls. For this is a band that is an utter sugar rush of pure pop joy, with hummable good time tunes oozing out of them. It's as someone actually became so fed up with the whining, intensely serious indie dullards that are around, that they actually conjured up a band to represent and champion pop rock. Scouting For Girls are that band.
Despite the lack of guitar throughout all but two songs (there's simply keyboards, bass and drums) these aren't plodding bores like Keane. No, their goofball pop is much more fun and lively. All of the band members have a likeable energy about them, with vocalist Roy Stride repeatedly getting the crowd involved, while also attempting to dance, play the harmonica and have a go at the acoustic guitar too.
Such theatrics would be wasted if Scouting For Girls didn't have decent songs to back them up, but luckily they do possess a string of fizzy numbers that will conquer the airwaves sooner rather than later. Opener 'Holiday' sets things on the right note, danceable bass lines and percussion fusing with catchy, thumping piano to stick in your head. And it's like that the rest of the way, a pure pop onslaught of the highest order, with the stand outs being the already set to be massive anthems of 'It's Not About You' and new single 'She's So Lovely', both foot stomping, addictive as Hell and gloriously cheerful pop. There's very little pretensions about the group, nothing too dark or gloomy, at least musically.
The band's humour shines through as well, from the line "Elvis isn't dead and you're coming back to me" line on 'Elvis', to singing about wanting to be James Bond, on err, 'I Want To Be James Bond', to performing the entire opening from the He-Man cartoon and later giving a sweet but filthy dedication to BBC wildlife presenter Michaela Strachan on the bouncing 'Michaela'. The key thing about Scouting For Girls is that they're fun, with a peppiness that is infectious. They're going to conquer the country and you may as well join up to this branch of scouts now.
