The Yearning – If I Can't Have You (Elefant)

  Remember back in the late 1990s when Belle and Sebastian were making that series of wonderful pop records that you thought would last forever? Then you might remember that they spent the most of the next 15 years disappearing up their own backsides and writing songs that sounded like Leo Sayer b-sides.

It is with this in mind that we should thank The Yearning for taking up the baton so effortlessly. 'If I Can't Have You' is a download only single from their forthcoming album 'Dreamboats and Lemonade' (which beats those Heartbeat compilations hands down as far as a name goes), also out on Elefant.

It's a crackling flame of a song, that begins with a gorgeous keyboard part that backs a plaintive lament about the old unrequited love conundrum. Seems the heroine of the song is bound to settle for second best here, and isn't that a sad old thing to behold?

Labelmates The School are clearly a big influence on The Yearning, but there are also echoes of formative Camera Obscure and (yes) Belle and Sebastian on those first three electric albums which now seem to be a lifetime away.

The Yearning have lived up to their name in a single song, and I hope I'm not feeling a bit fragile when I see them at Indietracks this year. A beautiful, painful pop song.