Good Neighbours push the nostalgia button with throwback anthem "Keep It Up"

Do not adjust your radio. It is not 2009. You might think that you are hearing the electrified get-up-and-go rabble-rousers Passion Pit again for the first time, but you are not. Instead, your ears — and your tingling sense for nostalgia — have been pricked by the vibrancy of Good Neighbours’ second single "Keep it Up". A duo from East London, Scott Verrill and Oli Fox might only have started making music together last year, but their 14.8 million monthly listeners on Spotify suggests they might be onto something already.

Perhaps it’s partly down to the great algorithm in the sky, but the Londoners’ first single ever released, "Home", mingled its way into singles charts in 12 different countries with its brand of sentimental alt-pop. Now, their second release "Keep It Up" nuzzles its way further into the comforting haze of a nostalgic, and often unfairly maligned, genre of indie electro-pop.

With singles like M83’s Midnight City worked to death by TV soundtracks, this 2010-busting sub-genre can occasionally feel as if made to be soundtracked rather than enjoyed in its own right. Yet, there was an era when bands like GROUPLOVE were cool; FIFA video game playlists enjoyed by millions across the world were once littered with upbeat seize-your-life indie pop anthems, turning predominantly young ears onto the likes of Crystal Fighters and Foster the People.

It is exactly this sense of childhood post-school gaming nostalgia that playfully pulls your ear on "Keep It Up". It’s carefree; It’s endless summer holidays; it’s asking your mum what’s for dinner and groaning when she says she’s making cottage pie. It’s no surprise then, when the pair describe how the formation of the single resembled a moment of release.

Ahead of a sold-out gig at London’s Lexington, Oli and Scott reflect: “We wrote this track about 20 mins after Oli had just been fired from one of his four part-time jobs at the time. It was a bleak time, but this was the song that we needed to hear to give ourselves some joy and optimism. We wrote it, and Good Neighbours was born”.

It’s fair to say that "Keep It Up" would take some going to reach the unbelievable peaks summited by the TikTok-driven "Home". Nonetheless, the rose-tinted pop of Good Neighbours’ follow-up will undoubtedly find a home with those nostalgic for feel-good sounds and stretched-out school summer holidays.