RESEARCH - Breaking Up Review

Breaking up may well be hard to do, but it's proved the salvation of a countless number of songwriters over the years. You can write mini-symphonies about politics, about wanting to be a rock star, or about sex but if the creative well runs dry, then you can't go far wrong with songs about the breakdown of relationships....full text A strange thing happened when The Magic Numbers unexpectedly found fame. Rather than accept the hirsute four-some as a charming one-off, the suits running the music industry from a bunker three miles under the Barfly in Chalk Farm made a connection with the success of Belle & Sebastian and decided that indie pop was clearly the Next Big Thing....full text The accompanying press release regales a witty and warm biog; so one would expect The Research's debut album to be suitably similar. Thankfully, it is. The second trio to emerge from Wakefield, North Yorkshire in recent years (the other being The Cribs), The Research are more likely to hide under a table at an awards ceremony than fling themselves across one....full text