The Ruby Tailights’ main-man Martin Kelly will be familiar to any stalwarts of the mid-90s Irish music scene as the frontman with the brilliant Sunbear, whose distortion-fuelled epics were years ahead of their time. This time around, Kelly has eschewed the effects pedals, however, for some relatively straightforward guitar pop, which swaggers from your speakers fully-formed and ready, if not to dance then at least to sway happily in the corner.
The shimmering sound isn’t completely surprising when you realise that production duties are co-handled (with Kelly) by Joe Chester, who seems to specialise in that pristine pop shine, which takes what would otherwise be quite lo-fi tunes and adds some welcome spit and polish. In a live setting, Martin Kelly is joined by two of his fellow cohorts from Sunbear, along with former Skindive frontwoman Danielle Harrison on backing vocals, but here it’s just drummer Paddy Moran who makes his presence felt, with everything else handled by Kelly and Chester.
There’s an innocence and sincerity to Martin Kelly’s voice that makes him come across like a child lost in an adult world. “I know that things can’t be perfect all the time,” he sings on ‘Lighthead’, but this still sounds like somebody who’s yearning for things to be better. The songs spring forth like mini-daydreams, from the far-off gaze of ‘Buenos Aires’ to uber-catchy current single ‘Switch’. Elsewhere, there’s the slide guitar whimsy of ‘Back Around’, the skewed indie pop of ‘Rocket’ and the almost confessional whispering-in-your-head of ‘The Last Wave I Drowned In’.
By times, it’s as infectious as the common cold, but Dressing Up is unlikely to trouble any but the most adventurous of radio programmers, as it wears its indie credentials firmly on its sleeve. It’s a pity, because these are some of the finest off-kilter pop tunes heard since the likes of Sebadoh in their prime. Still, Kelly doesn’t seem too bothered. As he sings on the gorgeous ‘Down By Loss’, “The road less travelled always leads to bigger things”. Not sure I’d agree, but it’s a valiant sentiment nonetheless.