Veronica Falls

2011 album from the British Indie quartet. The very best pop music mixes sweetness and light with dissonance and darkness, injects a perfectly addictive harmony with something sadder, stranger. Think of the gloomy melodrama of 'Tell Laura I Love Her,' which kick started the teenage tragedy song craze in the '60s, the bleak farewell of 'Seasons in the Sun' in the '70s, even the Smiths' 'Girlfriend in a Coma' in the '80s: all meltingly beautiful melodies with something considerably darker lurking at their hearts; the black cloud on a summer's day, the bruise on a perfect face. It's into this long and storied lineage that London four-piece Veronica Falls quite happily fit. Welcome to the slanted and enchanted world of Veronica Falls, where serendipity, subversion, Providence and a shared love for Roky Erickson's worldview all play a crucial part.