sensitive scottish pop

I like the Camera Obscura album and I LURVE Ballboy.

I wouldn't have called Ballboy particularly "post-B&S" and I don't know if they'd be too impressed by the comparison.. but their records are fabulous. They remind me of the Delgados except with way better lyrics.

is this anything to do with that Spearmint song?

i too also quite adore the Camera Obscura album, despite making a concerted effort NOT to listen to music which makes me want to skip.

Which Spearmint song? "Sweeping The Nation"?

Spearmint song is called "Scottish Pop," no? From their latest album.

(Ballboy is also quite good.)

Keith, the Starlets is surely different than the Swedish band Starlet, I assume? (I haven't heard too many of these others you mention, although I imagine I would have given them much more time had they been around five or so years ago, when I was in the throes of B&S infatuation.)

You should also check out James Yorkston and his band the Athletes, who are just lovely. Also Ali Roberts, who I think has a band called Appendix Out. Both singers manage to do the sensitive thing without being cute or apologetic or fey or twee, due to not-shy voices and proper strong guitar playing and just shitloads of conviction. yuk, i sound like a press officer, sorry. i'm not, honest.

I suppose you could lump a lot of this in the 'post-b&s' canon, although some of them would surely baulk at the comparison, seeing as how unfashionably it is nowadays.

Haven't heard the Starlets album yet but expect it to be very good given the singles.

Ali Roberts is excellent- I'd recommend not just checking out Appendix Out but also his covers of traditional folk songs, they're very very lovely.

There's a Scottish Camera Obscura? The one I've heard was late-90's San Diego hardcore. They put out a pretty good album, "To Change the Shape of an Envelope." Two of the members went on to the band Champagne Kiss.

Cruiser are a recent, slightly folkish group from Scotland, but they lace their acoustic instruments with beats a la Laika. The one album they've put out so far, "Northern Electric," is pretty but mixed & mastered kind of low so it's difficult to hear much of what they're doing. They got potential, but their beats are weak.

Appendix Out are a bit more special than all of the other bands mentioned on this list. Their last album shimmers and glimmers with a medieval naivety, it has that awkward other-timeliness of the first palace brothers album.

Don't forget International Airport, they're fucking marvellous.

Okay, I've heard both Ballboy and Camera Obscura now thanks to this kind thread. I did not care for Ballboy. I really expected to, because I'm usually in agreement with the posters who recommended them. The singer just strikes me as a tedious jerk. Camera Obscura I like a lot. They're superficially similar to so many boy/girl indie pop bands, yet fresh and surprising. I'm still hoping to track down some Starlets but nothing so far.