The Smashing Times - This Sporting Life

Baltimore's most fervent Dan Treacy acolytes The Smashing Times graduate to K Records for the release of This Sporting Life, their third and markedly best record to date. Fans of the previous two long players wont notice any great shake up here, simply a sharpening of intent and application where everything sounds just that little bit crisper. Down-the-stairs-backwards-with-a-half-smile melodicism that knows its Whaam! from its Dreamworld, and still has a soft spot for that first Jam album and its suburban ennui (who doesn't!).The great surprise here is the The Smashing Times aren't from San Francisco, sharing as they do a very similar Barrettian art-pop worldview as the Paisley Shirt sect, particularly Sad Eyed Beatniks, Now and Famous Mammals, though it's perhaps this dislocation from indiepop's heartland that lends these five charmers their distinct sense of small town languour. They're also adroit enough to know that indie pop legend is born from arcane references and the romanticising of local esoterica - see 'Burglary in Belvedere, 'Where Is Rowan Morrison', 'Glorious Tales of Wes' et al. Still, outsiderdom is a universal language for some and The Smashing Times know how to perch on the outside of a circle as elegantly as any. It's worth taking the time to sit some with them.