In the mid-1980s, Amelia Fletcher fronted Oxford's Talulah Gosh, whose retro charity-shop threads, jangling guitars and fiercely independent attitude influenced Belle and Sebastian's fey folk-pop, the micro-symphonies of the Magnetic Fields and the furious punk feminism of the riot-grrrl movement. Two decades later, the high priestess of indie pop leads Tender Trap into more self-consciously sophisticated waters, the chiming guitars and heavenly harmonies now augmented by fizzy, lava-lamp keyboard blips and Toby Hyrcek-Robinson's wall-of-sound production. Other musicians talk loftily about their art; Fletcher only ever wanted to make perfect pop.
Fortuna Pop