TOP OF THE POPS by CARLA DAL FORNO

Pearl blue cassette comes wrapped in colour printed J-cards and with colour sticker inlays. Artwork designed by Carla dal Forno. Photo taken in Yorkshire Grove, Hackney.“Everything begins and ends at exactly the right time and place, look...” Carla dal Forno presents ‘Top Of The Pops,’ a self-released cassette disclosing six songs of sultry pop devotion. This late-Spring cassette of cover songs gets the wider autumnal release it deserves, showcasing the full range of dal Forno’s virtuous taste, style and production in her distinct post-punk, pop (but) minimalist sensibility. Not without cheek, the wink-and-a-nod blue film bawdiness of ‘Lay Me Down’ (Renee) and ‘Give Me Back My Man’ (B52s) are complemented by the earnest ballads of ‘A Silver Key Can Open A Lock Somewhere’ (Liliput) and The Fates’ ‘No Romance.’ Kiwi Animal’s ‘Blue Morning,’ which over the last year has grown with every live performance, finally gets a recorded release. This cosmic inner dialogue of love lost is matched only by the penultimate track, ‘Summertime Sadness’ which is the best example of how devastatingly personal a pop song truly can be. It’s all emphasised by dal Forno’s sparse production which, as with each of these six songs, brings her au fait vocal interpretations to the fore.