(Virgin EMI)The Stockport band’s third album of expansive gems is a celebration of love so puppy-eyed it evokes the Osmonds
Towards the beginning of the last decade, with indie conclusively out to pasture, a handful of male groups that might once have made mileage out of beefing in the NME cannily started acting more like boybands. The 1975, Cabbage and Blossoms embraced their female fanbases, not to mention the role of the floppy-haired pin-up, and stopped slagging off pop. Blossoms, a five-piece from Stockport, go the whole hog on album three, a “celebration of love” so puppy-eyed it evokes the Osmonds. While they’ve boldly cited Stop Making Sense, The Joshua Tree and Screamadelica as influences, on Foolish Loving Spaces, they sound more like exuberantly uncool prepunk pop: Abba, Slade, the Bay City Rollers. It’s not dissimilar to the recent Harry Styles album, when that album let down its guard.