The Loves – Three

The Loves are the sort of band that aren't anyone's idea of unit shifters but you're quite glad exist. Essentially the Cardiff collective's schtick is playing radio hits from 1968-1974, ranging from bubblegum pop to raw acid garage to anything that comes to mind, and having worked their way through nearly thirty members, four Peel sessions and many enthralling support slots on the London proper indie circuit, they've honed their particular craft to a fault.On this - hey! - third album, various friends pop by - Darren Hayman, Rob Jones of The Voluntary Butler Scheme and, curiously, Harry Hill's TV Burp writer Daniel Maier - but it's still very much the sound of a group of close associates having fun with their well thumbed vinyl collections. That's especially true when they let go on songs like 'Kaleidoscope (In My Head)', which careers to and forth from psych-garage to cheerleader chorus to Donovan-like mellow passages to acid rock as Simon and Jenna exchange love odes about synaethesia. That they can carry it off without losing focus is quite something. That they can carry off a song longer than three minutes is almost as noteworthy, given their usual stomping ground is more like the trad glam stomp of 'One-Two-Three' or 'The Ex-Gurlfriend', on which Simon sounds oddly like Bobby Gillespie over cocksure three chord rock straight from the British Invasion.And onwards it goes. You'll hear the obviously retro references - T-Rex, girl groups, the Kinks, the Who, the Apples In Stereo, any number of half forgotten late 60s hits - a mile off but the renovation job on the melodies, vocal play-offs and even the delicacy of the slower songs is done with such love and attention to detail. Three won't change anyone's life, but for its forty minutes it's a whole heap of bubblegum pop fun. 60%The Loves on Myspace