The Research - 'The Hard Times' (At Large) Released 05/06/06

Yorkshire’s twee pop trio The Research serve up another slice of heavily-iced Bontempi keyboard fancy, straight out of the oven of Belle and Sebastian-if B+S were just that little big more cheery. The slightly weary vocals of front man Russell contrast nicely with the multi-part harmonies and spinning keys that back it, while his deadpan lyrics prevent 'The Hard Times' from drowning in its own syrup. A Lovely bite of indie candyfloss, but weather you could stomach a whole album of it is a different matter.