Gig review: Emma Pollock

Published on Thursday 25 June 2009 20:53

**** CAPTAIN'S REST, GLASGOW

"WHAT do you do with new songs?" pondered Emma Pollock, as she faced the conundrum of a musician returning to playing live after a long spell in the studio, "spread them out or do them all at once and alienate people?"

She chose the latter approach, but it didn't have the expected effect. The former singer with disbanded Glasgow indie quartet The Delgados has gathered a wealth of goodwill towards her solo career, and a large crowd responded warmly to the new stuff. Warm being the right word as the tiny Captains Rest – a sweat box at the best of times – felt like a pressure cooker, packed to bursting point on a sticky summer night at the West End Festival.

Pollock's 2007 debut album Watch the Fireworks didn't exactly spark, well, fireworks with its mix of pretty and chiming but straight-up singer-songwriter indie, yet its positive reception ought to have comfortably allayed any fears she had about going solo.

The feeling now is of her worrying about pleasing herself first and foremost. Pollock's second longplayer, tentatively titled The Law of Large Numbers and slated for January, will see her return to the fold at Chemikal Underground – the cult label she runs with her former Delgados band mates – after a short relationship with 4AD records. The new material, aired confidently here together with a noisy three piece band, sounded darker and more involved; at points prone even to a fizzing discordant rock out.

The best of her older songs have loads of legs left on them too, particularly Paper and Glue, which revolves around a big, glorious chorus, and the Radiohead-y off-kilter jangle of The Optimist. With a clear voice as instantly engaging as hers, you struggle to see Pollock alienating anyone.