Hold On To Your Heart is quite possibly the most millennial album of the year. You can pinpoint the cultural landmarks of their childhood, from the guitar-driven pop of Busted (primary school) to the coming-of-age big-school influence of mainstream 2000s emo and the polished stadium soft rock of The Killers, right down to Murray Mcleod’s emotional warble and the Cheddary synths bolstering the polished riffs of Daydream.
Pop, by the way, is unashamedly at the heart of it all; there’s no pretense of indie cool here. Drive Me Wild features a blaring sax for an 80s viewed through a prism of nostalgia for a decade they never knew, and a towering, phones-in-the-air chorus, while ballad Cry ups the overblown ante even further.
Expect to hear Xcerts on the radio – a lot.
