Songs for the Small Places – Giant Killers (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Good things come to those who wait. That’s what they say. Well, never was that truer than with Songs for the Small Places, which finally comes blinking into the light of day nearly three decades after its intended release date. The reason behind the delay? I don’t know, and frankly, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that the album, the Giant Killers’ debut, is finally with us, and the music world is a much better place for it.

I see people bandying around the word “nostalgia” about this album. I don’t see it that way. Yes, this is what the more discerning end of nineties pop sounded like for a lot of us: music made through very analogue processes (and I am in no way dismissing digitally driven music, but it does seem that we have painted ourselves into a lowest common denominator corner there,) music that didn’t rely on dance routines and guest rappers, social media campaigns and other hyperbole.

And if I find a hint of nostalgia, it is only because it reminds me of bands such as The Liberty Horses, The Icicle Works, Del Amitri and in its more understated moments, The Lilac Time, all bands who, at their best days, were capable of turning out perfect pop songs. But that is less about nostalgia and more, because of the long delay between creation and release, a reminder of what has been lost from the pop realms.

I mean, give When This Time is Over a spin and tell me that any of the current crop of cash-till ring troubadours could better the ease and accessibility, the deftness and dexterity of that tune. Convince me that Let Me In isn’t the most heartfelt and honest dreamscape ballad you have heard in years. And isn’t For The Money proof perfect that music made on the cusp of the pop and rock divide, music that highlights the best of both worlds – blends power and poise, melody and muscle, grace and groove – can, in the right hands, be a marriage made in sonic heaven? (And these are, demonstrably, the right hands.)

This would be a fantastic album in any age. But killer songs, poetic lyricism and perfect deliveries aside, it is also an essential document of how potent pop used to be and, perhaps, with bands taking a leaf out of Giant Killers’ Big Book of Pop Perfection, what it can aspire to be once more.