The only good thing to come from a miserable breakup is great music – if you’re Bon Iver or Adele, that is. Or Champs, indeed, whose debut album ‘Down Like Gold’ is a hazy folk-pop collection of sweet misery and regret.
“I’ve been wasting away,” sing Isle Of Wight-based brothers David and Michael Champion, all wintry choirboy harmonies, in ‘Pretty Much’, the song’s optimistic melodies a shimmering layer thinly disguising the heartbreak beneath.
An album of summer anthems this is not, then, and its collision of sorrow-tinged dreaminess and ethereal symphonies ensure it’s not just good wallowing material, but good material full stop.
7/10
Words: Daisy Jones
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