Powder Pink Vinyl
Long time coming collection of early singles/EPs by Aberdeen, an early 90s LA band mostly notable for turning up on Sarah just as the label was closing in on its prearranged end-date - indeed, 'Fireworks', the second Aberdeen 7", was SARAH097 and a late enough arrival to almost be able to switch off the lights itself. You Kept My Heart combines both Sarah singles from 1994 with the 'Snapdragon' 7 released the year after by the still-active Chicago-based imprint, Sunday Records. Both the date stamp and band's locale are revealing of where they sit within the Sarah catalogue (and, really, the indiepop continuum as a whole). Lovelorn and, dare I say, twee they may often be, but these recordings are exactly not the fragile bedroom comminiques you might associate with classic Sarah, the production instead a fair bit more muscular, the guitars that little more soaring and expansive, with as much of an eye on, say, Oxford as Bristol, and at least a little kinship with Insides' dreamstate melancholia and Even As We Speak's unimpeachable Feral Pop Fantasy. Close to unattainable on vinyl for quite some time now, and certainly never previously together all in one place, hearing Aderdeen's refraction of the indiepop lexicon now almost feels like the discovery of an entirely new band. And to the TikTok Shoegaze Acolytes, they might very well be. Recognition is hard earned, even when it sounds this effortless.
