Rating: NNNN
There’s a wide-eyed sense of little-kid amazement rippling through every track on Tower Of Love, the first full-length release by Mancunian bedroom-pop savant Jim Noir. It’s not just singsong refrains like “If you don’t give my football back / I’m gonna get my dad on you,” or meta-platonic odes to his computer that lend Noir’s songs this faux naïf air it’s also gentle arrangements and pillowy production. Those qualities make the album sound kinda like what it felt like to listen to the kaleidoscopic orch-pop of the Beach Boys when you were a kid hiding under the dining room table. Without the soft synth cumulae, multi-tracked vocals, textured tambourine shimmers and bucolic electronic pop bits, Noir’s singing and writing are reminiscent of a chipper (and slightly spacey) Nick Drake. But the added effects raise Tower Of Love above the level of your average singer/songwriter disc. A mood-altering drug for pop fiends.