Music

It’s fitting that the debut by this hotly-tipped five-piece has been produced by the definitive 1980s desk jockey Trevor Horn; perhaps only Horn could stitch together the raw materials that Captain have clearly ransacked from the 1980s. The most obvious reference for Captain’s   clever-clever alt.pop is Prefab Sprout – Rik Flynn even enunciates his lyrics with Paddy McAloon’s idiosyncratic Durham-via-Memphis brogue, while keyboardist Clare Szembek’s waifish backing vocals are a spit for Wendy Sprout. Crucially, guitarist Mario Athanasiou adds some spikier influences: the reverbed arpeggios of The Chameleons; the Cocteau Twins’ shimmer; My Bloody Valentine’s wall of distortion. Horn nearly replicates the trick that he pulled off with Belle And Sebastian’s ‘Dear Catastrophe Waitress’ – which was to reconcile scruffy C86 jangle pop with high-end ZTT production – although a few tracks move into the ghastly late-’80s power-pop zone occupied by, say, Deacon Blue.

In spirit, Captain’s approach to the ’80s recalls The Feeling’s retread of ’70s AOR. Unlike The Feeling, however, Captain don’t quite have the same flair for pop gold. You get the impression Captain might just be a little too clever to achieve the arena-filling popularity that their sound requires.