The Research

This is more like it. The Research's comeback single, I Think She’s The One I Love, is grandiose and swooning like ABC’s The Lexicon Of Love and melodramatically romantic like Orange Juice’s You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever. It’s one of my favourite singles of the year.

I haven’t liked The Research this much since 2005’s The Way You Used To Smile, which for at least two weeks after its release I was convinced was the best single made since 1963. In fact, this is pretty much the only time I’ve really liked them since then.

At the top of their game, The Research, like Pulp, lend great invention to superficial pop; at the bottom, they sounded like a good joke told badly. Live they played crap Yamaha synths and sang out of tune, like Baxendale, only nowhere near as fun or as good.

I wonder if EMI pressured the creativity out of them a couple of years ago. Whatever the case, they weren’t the finished article. What’s clear now, though, is that I Think She’s The One I Love is fantastic. I’ll have to get the new album, The Old Terminal, to see if they’re really delivering on their promise at last.