This is one where information is quite hard to pull together for any sort of decent posting but I’ll do my best.
First up, the source of the songs is one of the Indietracks Compilation 2013, the official compilation of artists who played the Indietracks Festival on 26-28th July 2013. Like all the Indietrack compilations, it comes as a digital download, with all proceeds going to the Midland Railway Trust, which played host to the festival throughout its existence between 2007 and 2019.
mp3: The French Defence – If You Still Want Him
This really is indie-pop by numbers.
A fast-paced, upbeat tune driven along by what sounds like the classic four-piece band, with acoustic and electric guitars to the fore. A lovelorn lyric filled with hope and optimism. A vocal delivery that doesn’t always hold the notes. The sort of thing we’ve all listened to thousands of times with a smile on our faces, while our foot taps away in appreciation. There may even be a few out there who have danced to the song at an indie-disco in towns and cities the world over, when the DJ goes to that bit of their set-list marked ‘obscurities that people will ask about’.
The French Defence has/have an online presence of sorts. My lack of decision to go with the singular or otherwise is down to what is said there.
Leeds-based one-man (at the moment!) indie-pop goodness, dealing in the not-very-diverse themes of chocolate, love, sex and the Yorkshire weather.
The one-man is Owen Lloyd who I assume is the singer/songwriter. The musical influences listed are Trembling Blue Stars, Belle and Sebastian, R.E.M., Blueboy, The Lodger, The Research, Laura Veirs, good 90’s Britpop, Mazzy Star, The Wannadies, Ooberman, Saint Etienne, The Field Mice, Sarah Records and indie-pop far and wide, just about all of which can be detected in the song offered up today.
Over at Bandcamp, (from where the above photos has been lifted), there’s six releases available to explore further, albeit three of them are collections of out-takes and demos, while another is a single. The two main sets of songs are on the EP We Had Fun, Didn’t We, released on Anorak Records in 2007 and Sketches of The September Leaf, a digital release from 2013 which is, of course, the year the band played Indietracks.
The fact that the most recent release at Bandcamp dates from December 2014 is an indication that The French Defence is/are a long time removed from the indie-pop scene.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 