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The Hermit Crabs

Feel Good Factor EP

(Matinée; US: 23 Jan 2007; UK: 26 Feb 2007)

The Hermit Crabs is a Glasgow band that plays whispery, loving twee-pop. Its lyrics are small-scale and full of whimsy and regret coupled with a wistful hopefulness. The musicians look for clothes “at the charity bin”; they sing odes to “my china girl” (I think this means a figurine rather than a woman from Asia); they worry that their unrequited crushes will come to a depressing fruition. They “spend my time, filling my head with silly things / Wonderful whirligigs / You pass me by / Move on to other things / In your absent meanderings”; and they do it all to the finely-drawn sweetness of a cello and Melanie Whittle’s plaintive, husky voice. These are songs for a thousand university residences and share houses. The ‘Crabs has a full-length album coming out later this year and I’m already looking forward to it.

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Tagged as: the hermit crabs
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26 Feb 2009
Beneficiaries of a Glaswegian fey-pop habit, the members of the Hermit Crabs sound plaintive even when they're addressing subjects that are not plaintive at all.
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Scottish band siphon the spirit of Camera Obscura and Belle and Sebastian, distilling it down into their own brand of fey folk and indie-pop.
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