What did you do during the lockdowns? Did you hybernate bingewatching series all day? Did you work out more? Read more books? Took a lot of walks? For some of us, the restrictions hindered our well-being and proactivity. For others, the lockdowns unlocked opportunities, time and energy to get creative. Count Andrew Taylor in the latter category. The Scot, who also fronts the indie pop powerhouses Dropkick and the Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness, started turning the randomly recorded audio clips, melodies and chord progressions on his phone into actual songs, which he recorded solo in his garage. Soon after, more songs were recorded with the help of his brother Alastair, Ian Grier (also of Dropkick) and long-time collaborator Iain Sloan. They called themselves The Harmonizers.<\/p>\n
Within a couple of months, Taylor had about 40 songs which he originally planned, depending on their musical direction, as blueprints for a new solo record, or a Dropkick or Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness record. Early 2021, Taylor decided to pick the best songs from the previous year for a proper vinyl, CD and digital release – with The Harmonizers re-recording and improving the songs that had none of their prior input. I’m grateful he did. The 14 songs on the self-titled record are warm and pleasant, and you have to admire Taylor for being so prolific without making any concessions to the quality of the songs. The melodies are smooth yet jangly, the harmonies are gorgeous, and the balance between more uptempo tracks and more subdued ones is about perfect. It’s classic indie (power)pop for fans of Teenage Fanclub and Wilco.<\/p>\n