Edinburgh’s janglemeisters Dropkick return to the recording fray after a Covid enforced break and they do so with their customary excellence. The Wireless Revolution finds the band trimmed down to a trio (Andrew Taylor, Alan Shields and Ian Grier) which allows the songs to be somewhat leaner than the more expansive outings on their last album The Scenic Route. It’s a concise collection of perfectly formed songs, all delivered within a radio friendly three minute time zone and, if there was any justice in the world, these bejangled jewels would be wafting from the nation’s airwaves and whipping up a storm, just in time really as the better weather calls for a slice of sunny side up pop /rock music.

The album opens on a high note with the yearning chimes of Don’t Give Yourself Away with Taylor channelling his inner Gene Clark on a song which ends, appropriately enough, with a Byrds’ like guitar outro. This fine blend of melancholia and harmonic uplift is revisited on Unwind, a winsome reflection on undoing past mistakes and on The Rolling Tide which is a highpoint of the album with its wispy delivery, as fragile as a dandelion clock buffeted by a gentle breeze, quite wonderful. Clouds, the penultimate song here is another highlight as the trio deliver a gossamer like confection with limpid guitars and multilayered harmonies.

Flexing their muscles a bit, the trio bite into power pop on Telephone and on No Difference, the latter standing out as Al Shields replaces Taylor on lead vocals adding a touch more grit to the song. Shields (a fine performer in his own right) also gets the opportunity to sing on his first song written for Dropkick on The Other Side. It shows that he’s well embedded in the Dropkick world of Byrds’ influenced jangled pop songs having taken on board that fine juxtaposition of uplifting melancholia.

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