If you’ve ever wondered what Modern Romance fronted by a Nolan sister would sound like, look no further. Channelling 1981 to quite spectacular effect, Summer Camp‘s Fresh is a wonderful dollop of supperclub disco. Only the delightfully wonky strings prevent this from sounding like the sort of thing you’d to hear on an instalment of Seaside Special. For those too young to remember, Seaside Special was the BBC‘s quite-literally-end-of-the-pier Saturday night variety show in the late seventies and for a bit, the early eighties. It was amazing, obviously.

Anyway, here is Fresh for you to enjoy.

You probably now have the urge to wear something with a bit of a shimmer and head to your nearest nitespot – either that or lounge by a pool sipping something from a complicated straw while looking at an attractive person from over the top of your sunglasses. It’s that kind of record.

Of course there was no  place in the charts for this in the summer of 2013. Sexy innocence wasn’t particularly popular at the time – we were at this point deep in Robin Thicke territory. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned from some of the more obscure artists featured on Popvoid it’s that being a pop star isn’t the same thing as being in the top 40. If anything it’s a job – and your job as a pop star is to make amazing records. The stardom part is lovely if it happens, but if you can make your living from it then it is your duty to do so.

If I were Summer Camp‘s supervisor and it was employee appraisal time, I’d be ticking Outstanding in every box.

Entered chart: did not chart

Who could sing this today and have a hit? I quite fancy the Haim treatment for this.

Published by Niall McMurray

View all posts by Niall McMurray