Mull Historical Society - City Awakenings

All those old feelings of optimism and wonder are flooding back.

Label: Xtra Mile
Released: 23rd January 2012
Reviewer: Martyn Young

The music of Colin McIntyre, the man who is Mull Historical Society, has always been imbued with a wonderful sense of wide-eyed exuberance and optimism. Over the course of three excellent, but under-appreciated, albums in the early-to-mid-noughties he carved out a reputation for making clever, literate and hugely melodic indie pop. Now, after the diversion of two albums under his own name, comes McIntyre’s first release under his old moniker for eight years and it seems that all those old feelings of optimism and wonder are flooding back.

‘City Awakenings’ is described as a tribute, a love letter of sorts, to Glasgow, London and New York, the three cities that have most influenced the work of Mull Historical Society. The album is flecked with references to those cities, most touchingly on the glorious single ‘The Lights’ which describes McIntyre gazing at the bright lights of the Glasgow skyline on his first trip to the city from the Isle of Mull, its fizzing chorus is bursting with melody and cannot fail to put a smile on your face.

The album is based on the feelings of inspiration that travel and cities can provide and the boundless rush of vibrant and catchy pop is a perfect accompaniment to McIntyre’s lyrics. ‘Must You Get Low’s’ breezy horns are utterly charming, its pop thrills repeated on the soaring ‘Can You Let Her Now’ and the lush and twinkling ‘For Bas, The Hague’. There is, however, one track amidst the euphoric pop that has an air of pessimism: the pensive and understated ‘Fold Out City’ casts a more sombre note but it is no less affecting as McIntyre describes his yearning days of “Making city dreams, with fair liquid beams."

The final track on the record also explicitly references the city of London; the lilting instrumental ‘Thames Link (London’s Burning)' is a shimmering, lovely instrumental that is something of an echo of the earlier, quirky lo-fi Mull Historical Society sound and shows that McIntyre is capable of invention as well as effortless pop.

It could possibly be argued that the relentlessly upbeat and hook filled pop of ‘City Awakenings’ gets a bit tiring over the course of an album, but it would be a churlish criticism with songs that are this good and this well crafted. It seems that the subtle change of going back to his old pseudonym has reinvigorated Colin McIntyre’s music and the Mull Historical Society is back in operation with a very fine comeback. Rating: 8/10