Indiepop label Shelflife have released a whole stack of new CDs since I last wrote an article on them, so it's time for another one!

I recently heard Aerospace, an excellent janglepop band from Sweden (watch out for a review of their album some time in the future). Current and previous members of Aerospace are also in The Shermans who have not one but two recent albums on Shelflife. The first of these is Casual, which has 18 tracks, mostly taken from singles and compilations. The music is happy-go-lucky, twee janglepop, sometimes with male lead vocals and sometimes female. A lot of the female fronted tracks, Happy Being Lonely, Snowsong, Are You Near, Best of Friends and My Cue in particular, remind me a lot of The Blind Bats. My Favourite Cuppa is a carefree pop song about coffee, with lots of shooby-doo-wahs. Loud & Laughing is a bit 60s girl-group sounding, crossed with kitsch easy listening and electronica. Ever After is another one with an easy listening influence. Rush Hour is a really brill janglepop song that dissolves into a few seconds of electronic bleepery at the end. Despite a couple of excursions into electronic territory, The Shermans are usually guitar based, making twee pop songs that are a mixture of 80s cutie and 60s sunshine pop. Recommended!

Torbjorn Thorsen has now left the band, so all vocals on the follow-up album, Happiness is Toy Shaped, are from Ingela Matsson. This album continues in a similar vein to the previous one - a blend of 80s twee pop, 60s sunshine pop and easy listening. Sometimes the happy moods of the songs mask a melancholic and/or angry subject matter (personal anger rather than political anger) - eg Lousy Judge of Character, in which Ingela sings about regretting knowing someone who turned out to be unpleasant. Explode is another one about someone Ingela (or perhaps not Ingela herself, but the character of the song) doesn't like: "I wish you'd move to Russia ... I wish you would explode!" Adulthood For Beginners is really cute, with lots of la-la-las, but once again, the subject matter is more serious than the feel of the song suggests - it's about how there are more important things in life than money. Falling Out Of Love has more la-la-las and also a tinkly, twee keyboard sound, but again the lyrics are far from happy-go-lucky: "We took turns to backstab/and one day it didn't hurt/As hollow as can be". July in London is a piano-based song that reminds me of Harvey Williams' California album. Deja Vu On Repeat has an 80s disco-pop feel, whilst still being twee indiepop. Another brilliant album from The Shermans!

Churchbuilder have an album, Patty Darling, and CDEP, Microdancer. The album has a song with the goth/death metal sounding title of Castle of Blood, but don't get the wrong idea - this is definitely indiepop! This band's particular brand of indiepop is mostly based around synths (including Moog), and there's a couple of songs with trumpet. The lyrics are sometimes melancholic, eg "The fear of losing you was too much to bear/Now that you're lost I just sit and stare" from Dreams, but at other times they're much more happy and carefree - songs about kissing and riding around town on a Vespa, and lots of hey-heys, wo-ohs, ah-ahs and na-na-nas. Microdancer is a bit different, adding a 70s pop and funk influence to the synth-based indiepop sound. Spanish Song is exactly that, a song sung entirely in Spanish. The other two songs on this EP continue in a simlar vein to the album.

Two years or so ago, Brazilian band Postal Blue had an EP out on Drive-in that I enthused about. It was very Sarah-like, jangly pop - one song in particular was especially reminiscent of Brighter and Another Sunny Day. Now they have a follow-up EP out on Shelflife, the Weather Sensitive EP with 5 tracks. They've toned down the Sarah influences for this EP and the Brighter-ish sound is nonexistent here. The title track has a synthesised trumpet and a vaguely bossa-ish guitar melody of the style a lot of current indiepop bands seem to favour. A Secret also features this sort of guitar playing. Too Tired and What You Were Meant To Be are superb janglepop songs that don't sound especially like any particular Sarah bands, but are definitely reminiscent of indiepop of that era. Puzzle shows they are still listening to their Sarah records as an Another Sunny Day influence is evident, particularly in the melody of the verse, which is reminiscent in part of Another Sunny Day's Rio. So yes, this is nostalgic music, and no, it's not experimental, but if you're a fan of old-school indiepop, as I am, I'm sure it will bring a smile to your face.

Laura Watling has a 16 song album, Early Morning Walk. She has rather a twee voice, that totally suits the jangly/strummy indiepop on offer here. Many tracks here have cute and happy tunes but this isn't always the case. Perfect Penmanship has quite a melancholic sounding melody, as does The One For You. Recover begins with a sad sounding keyboard riff, and the song itself is very different to Laura's usual music, having an apparent 80s soul influence. It comes across rather like an indiepop version of Terri-B's more soul-sounding songs. There's a version of World Falls Into Place by Motorcycle Boy - I don't know the original but this version is quite folky pop that reminds me of another song I heard recently, but can't think for the life of me what it is! Laura plays all instruments except for clarinet and trumpet on two songs, but this album has a definite 'full band' sound. Check out tracks like It's All I Can Do, My Fondest Wish, Grey Day, Atlantis and the very 80s and very cute You're Gonna Have To Change Your Ways, for prime examples of great twee janglepop.

Le Coupe have a self-titled album which begins with It Will Never Work Out, a mixture of indiepop, soul and easy listening. All very stylish, but ultimately a bit too middle-of-the-road for me. They have toned down the soul and easy listening elements for the rest, but it's still very light and airy pop that manages to be carefree without being excessively twee. Some tracks feature electronic beats, some have a trumpet. This isn't my favourite Shelflife release, but I don't dislike it. Basically it's nice, inoffensive pop. Perhaps a touch too nice and inoffensive, but if you're just after happy pop that's not too involving or heavy, this is just the thing.

Majestic are a 13 piece band who have also recorded as Majestic 12 and MJ12. Their album on Shelflife, Wake Up, Come Out And Play!, is mainly upbeat, happy pop with a handful of more laid-back, dreamlike tracks. Like many other Shelflife bands they're keen on ba-ba-bas and trumpet. Again, this album falls into the 'nice pop' pigeonhole but it does more for me than Le Coupe as it's generally more upbeat and I find the melodies are stronger. The more upbeat songs in particular are excellent, summery pop that's exciting to listen to, rather than something you might just have on in the background.

Phoebe Quest have a 6 track EP (plus bonus hidden instrumental track), The Windward Sound. The cover art for this isn't so obviously indiepop as most Shelflife releases - it could easily be for a band on the swaggering, rockish, more commercial end of 'indie'. The music, however, is summery indiepop with tambourine, glockenspiel, doo-doo-doos and, somewhat unsurprisingly, trumpet! This is less twee than many Shelflife bands though, and is probably more influenced by the 60s than C86. Really good stuff, I'd like to hear more from this band.

Shelflife have teamed up with Twee Kitten Records to release Champagne and Magazines, an 11 track album by Charming. Let Me Take You Out has a funk influence and spacey bleeps, and of course the obligatory trumpet. Downtown also sounds funky/70s discoey. Where Have I Been begins with a laid-back and quite echoey guitar piece which would sound at home in a post-rock, dreampop or spacerock song. The song itself is closest to dreampop out of all of these, but doesn't strictly fall into this pigeonhole. April is jangly, twee indiepop. Guilty By Association has fuzzy/noisy guitar and hey-hey-hey-heys that wouldn't sound out of place in a Jesus and Mary Chain song. You Were Not Meant For Me is like an 80s teenybopper pop song, I can imagine Kylie Minogue or someone doing this, but with different backing music. The Interview is upbeat pop with a spacey synth and noisy guitar, and a dancey beat comes in later on. The title track is laid-back electronic pop. Elsewhere this album is soft pop that's quite early 70s-ish. That trumpet crops up a few more times, and they also use other wind instruments. Quite a lot of variety on this album, but the styles actually go well together.

I discovered solo artist River when I heard his excellent tape on Best Kept Secret. I then asked him if he'd be interested in doing a tape for Bliss and fortunately he was and the songs were just as good. River has also released a few 7"s, the one on Shelflife I've got, but unfortunately I've been unable to track down the others. Now there's a 20 track, self-titled album out on Shelflife, which is a collection of songs with bossa and jazz tinges, techno-indie-pop, dancey instrumental music, jangly/strummy indiepop and even cabaret style songs, all held together by River's distinctive voice. Happy Summer Nights, Le Top Model, The Bridge, Street of Desire and Dream On are particularly great - tuneful indiepop that's well worth a listen! And check out the piano based, cabaret-ish Thank You, in which River sings about people, bands, etc he likes - one of the lines thanks "Field Mice and Heavenly, Blueboy and Sea Urchins"! Great that he's a Sarah fan; even greater that The Sea Urchins are one of his favourite Sarah bands!

Free Loan Investments is a strange name for a band - I can just about visualise a post-rock or experimental band using the name, but not an 80s-ish indiepop band influenced by Talulah Gosh and Shop Assistants! Mind you, ex-Talulah Gosh/Heavenly band Marine Research had a strange name for their type of music, and Free Loan Investments reminds me of this name somehow - the two names are concerned with completely different subjects of course, but both are names that seem incongruous for the music. Perhaps Free Loan Investments were thinking along the same lines and wanted a similar name to Marine Research? Free Loan Investments have a 6 song EP, Ever Been To Mexico?, which is out as a CD on Shelflife and 10" on Where It's At Is Where You Are. Incidentally WIAIWYA was the label that released the first Marine Research single! The band includes members of Mobile Unit Seven (who I'm not familiar with) and The Shermans and Aerospace (who you already know I think are great). Their music is dead good old-style indiepop, sometimes fuzzy and noisy, sometimes jangly, but always bursting with melody. If you like Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, Fat Tulips, Rosehips or Shop Assistants, watch out for this band. If you like The Cat's Miaow watch out for them too as there's a cover of their Be With You on here.

Further info on these and other Shelflife releases from info@shelflife.com

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