Formed in 1994 by Alex 'Mac' Macpherson (the man who replaced Booby Gillespie as The Wake's bassist, no less) and Jane Jardine Love, OPIUM changed direction a little when vocalist Katrina Docherty replaced the departing Love last year.
The new-look Glaswegian duo's first single "One Last Kiss" ( a splendid reworking of a previous career highlight) illuminated the W&H firmament last summer, and new single "Clarisse" is arguably even better. It's wistful Europop (in the best sense of the term) driven along by Mac's Jah Wobble-ish dubnology, dark brown baritone guitars and Docherty's breathy, soft-focus romance vocals which gently echo Dot Allison. Besides, how could we possible resist a song that opens with the lines: "Where do I begin? Overnight from West Berlin, down to the Cote D'Azur, that's where I met you." Talk about intrigue on an inter-railer's budget.
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Second track "Envious" is a goodie, too. Gently ecstatic and pepped up by some fleeting saxophone and tumbling piano, it's memorable stuff painted ever more vividly by Katrina's sultry vocals and could certainly have been considered as an A-side on its' own merits.
Opium, then, are quietly establishing themselves as a habit worth taking up. If there's more where this comes from in the near future then they shouldn't remain a guilty, lesser-known pleasure for much longer.
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