Ok, it’s the opening sentence of the review but let’s skip to the end, as it’s the closing ten minutes or so of Glitter, the new album by Dead Mellotron that really makes you sit up and take notice of this band. That’s not to say that what comes before the trio of ‘Babe’, ‘Oohahh’ and ‘Dying’ isn’t worth talking about (it is) but the overdrive and sheer infectiousness of the aforementioned three is akin to, I’d imagine, being transported back to 1991 right in the middle of a My Bloody Valentine gig. Well, without the earsplitting noise and face-melting heat from Kevin Shields’ amp stack, of course.

Dead Mellotron started as a solo project for Louisiana native Josh Frazier, who moved to Baltimore to make music, releasing two albums on his own before hooking up with Courtney Corcoran and Aimee Bowen to make Glitter; and some of the early versions of the tracks proved to be enough for Sonic Cathedral to snap them up. You can see why they’d be interested as they combine the epic instrumentals with the straight-up pop jangle that the label is famed for. And, since we should talk about the opening tracks, first song ‘Strange’ falls into the category of the latter, a linear rattle with indecipherable vocals that recalls the best that Slumberland has to offer, yet it also throws in an extended ambient coda (the boundaries that signal the end of one song and the start of another are constantly blurred on Glitter, leading to a cohesive whole) that acts as a lead-in to the chugging ‘Can’t See’, which starts subdued before bursting with sunshine in an uplifting chorus that must contain all the tropes of classic indie music that’s gone before it. Instrumental ‘Bye’ is made up of organ and drum loops with a layer of guitar lurking in the background, and remains satisfyingly unfussy when the temptation must have been to add in extra layers, or more reverb, or stamping on whatever pedal is closest. Dead Mellotron’s simple approach works again on ‘Making Up’, which goes from A to B without any detours yet remains a stonkingly good pop song, reminiscent of Bradford Cox at his most direct.

And so here we are at the glorious closing triptych; ‘Babe’ could be Beach House on strychnine, its aggressive stabs of jangling guitar building and building before dropping down into the initially-ethereal ‘Oohahh’. That track then bursts into life with some cyclical riffing from Frazier, accompanied by some ecstatic synth strings; there’s a sudden jar of feedback signalling the end of that crescendo leaving us with the alternately sighing-then-roaring joy of ‘Dying’, spiralling up and away before collapsing under the weight of its amped soloing. It’s an exhilarating end, coming way too soon on a record that comes in well under the 30 minute mark.

In many ways Glitter is entirely unassuming or challenging, yet somehow it’s still a great record and an LP – although “long” is stretching it given its brevity – in the old-fashioned sense that it needs to be listened to as a whole in order to appreciate the marvels within. I reckon Dead Mellotron have a lot more still to give, so next time let’s make it a bit longer, eh?