Tallies - 'Beat the Heart'

A healthy dose of nostalgia from these promising Toronto dreamers

Tallies state The Cocteau Twins and The Sundays as their primary influences. Of course they do. They're a dream pop band with a female singer, there are certain rules people have to follow. Despite the obviousness of the influences, this isn't specifically a throwback song. Whilst it's routes are solidly based in 1990, it's heart, soul and image are very 2018. "Beat the Heart" is a call for empathy that across the world is simply missing (we, the music fans amongst us, appear to be the small percentage of the population encouraging self-love and general kindness) and the jangly Smiths-isms, rich production and the charm of Sarah Cogan's voice, lyrics and general demeanour could mean that the world might actually listen, sooner or later.

Dylan Frankland has been open in his admiration of The Sundays and specifically the way Harriet Wheeler's soft-spoken voice and sugar-sweet melodies have been an influence on Cogan's contribution to the band. However, Cogan is much more fully throated and has more of an edge to her voice that Wheeler did- which provides an edge to this song that sometimes dream-pop as a genre can lack. The guitars are textbook; floaty background chords remeniscent of when The Temper Trap were good and delay and chorus drenched lead lines that The Edge would have been proud of in the writing of The Unforgettable Fire and as good as the licks and riffs that Johnny Marr used to just spit out across any of the Smith's output. The production recalls a budget My Bloody Valentine- less of thousands of pounds of wasted money but just as much depth and clarity from all the instruments involved. I'm a big fan of a chorus, and whilst this song has a specific one the melodies are so sweet throughout from Cogan's voice as well as the guitars that there's no part of the song more catchy than another. Toronto heavyweights FRIGS and Dilly Dally are championing the dark side of guitar music, Tallies prove that there is just as much need for light. Their debut album is out on Jan 11th and if every song is half as charming, catchy and upbeat as this one- we're all in for a treat.

Words by James Kitchen