The Orchids - Unholy Soul The Orchids

Thrilled to be getting fully signed copies of The Orchid's Unholy Soul reissue.

Originally released on seminal indie label Sarah in 1991, Unholy Soul was a step into new territory for the Glaswegian group. Somewhat on the fringes of the spangled afterglow of the late 80s 2nd summer of love, the band manifested the wide-eyed optimism of the early 90s in an sun-kissed album positively swimming in harmony and jangle. 

Like contemporaries Primal Scream, here the Orchids seem to be merging both summers of love, with a keen eye on 60s Psychedelia merged with new technology. The album careens somewhat gently between guitar-janglers that recall Teenage Fanclub’s first 2 albums, albeit with a slight, charming wonkiness that is all their own and an embrace of dance music filtered through the suburbs of Glasgow. Bringing You The Love has a warm drum machine and sine wave bass line skeleton, while Frank De Salvo baggies up the dance with some proper rock n roll guitar squall while it’s at it. Tracks like Moon Lullaby and Peaches successfully marry the two approaches, pretty much as ecstatic as Sarah got at this point in time. 

Unlike 90s Primals though, the group still brandished a winning vulnerability in their DNA which stands them in good stead. Hell, listen to some of this and you’ll be forgiven for thinking they regularly shared bills with New Order or Field Mice?

How can that be a bad thing?