The Pastels/Tenniscoats are two very different bands from the opposite ends of the world that have come together to find they have something in common in their sounds. The Pastels are from Glasgow and Tenniscoats from Tokyo. It was the Tenniscoats who suggested the two come together and booked some studio time while in Glasgow.

After a two or three year period of various recording sessions it seemed like they had reached and accumulated and album of songs. This forthcoming album is to be called Two Sunsets.

'Vivid Youth' and 'About You' is a double sided A single taken from their aforementioned forthcoming album.

'Vivid Youth' starts with the sophisticated backing melody on the bass guitar, which sets up the whole song. One guitar plays some fresh sounding chords while another plays the light melody of this summery psychedelic tune and the sultry yet angelic vocals come in.

This is a real feel good flighty summery piece; the woodwind that plays gives it a bit of an edge and makes me want to adorn daisy chains and skip and dance in a big overgrown grassy field with arms outstretched.

'About You' is a slower paced track. It feels like it has much more depth than 'Vivid Youth' but unfortunately, the vocals feel very flat and it is not in the same league at all as the previous single.

I feel I just want to wind this track up to make it a bit racier rather than the dulcet and dreary tones that it is.

The third track on this double sided A single is an instrumental version of 'About You'. I can’t help but think that the instrumental version should have been done for 'Vivid Youth'. At least this way we could have finished on a feel good warm song.

These two singles are polar opposites when it comes to ‘their’ sound, maybe this has something to do with the two very different cultures and music merging from each of these bands.

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Helena Rea