Jim Kroft - Between the Devil & the Deep Blue Sea

(Sidewalk 7)

Recorded in London via bohemian Berlin (where he now lives) and the Scottish Highlands (where he was raised), young Kroft has clearly procured his parents’ 80s pop-music collection: OMD, China Crisis, A Flock Of Seagulls, The Lightning Seeds etc.

Promising as it is, this debut still sees the singer-songwriter finding his feet musically through lush-pop ditties like ‘One Sees The Sun’, ‘Falling Apart’, the Sparks-like ‘Tales Of The Dark Arts’ and the Aztec Camera-cloned ‘Birthrights’; the derivative ‘Second Chance’ gnawingly asks the ‘where-have-I-heard-it-before?’ question. Anyway, the 80s never sounded so good.