Gig review: Emma Pollock

Published on Sunday 21 March 2010 21:57

KING TUT'S, GLASGOW ****

EMMA POLLOCK remains the member of much-missed Glasgow indie quartet The Delgados to thus far make the most serious go of it as a solo artist. Her second, highly impressive solo album The Law of Large Numbers was released last month via Chemikal Underground, the label she runs with her ex-bandmates.

Pollock confessed to being a bag of excitement and trepidation as she faced a crowd heavy with friends, family members and musical peers. But you'd have been hard-pressed to tell that nerves were jangling from the music, which sounded coolly assured to the note.

Her stuff is brimming with all the things that make for great pop songs – sweet melodies, catchy choruses and an overall clarity of purpose.

Yet everything is kicked sufficiently into leftfield as to feel fresh and never predictable, opener Hug the Harbour – with its salient vocal hook and clean-discordant guitar riff – being the ideal case in point.

It's no discredit to Pollock's excellent backing band, but the stripped-down moments were the definite highlights here, particularly House on the Hill – an exquisite chamber pop lament based around a glorious, cascading piano line – which showcased a tirelessly agile songwriting mind and immaculate voice in their purest form.