- The Loving Gaze is the debut album by Montero, which comprises multi-disciplinary artist Ben Montero and a bunch of supergroupy types (synth-crooner Geoffrey O’Connor, Cameron Potts of Regurgitator, Chapter Music supremo Guy Blackman, Bobby Brave and Gerald Wells). The album itself comprises all sorts of things, all fished out of history and stuck together in a vibrantly coloured, shimmering pastiche. The band claim - with some justification - to be influenced by many of the sunniest pop-sounds of the last fifty years, from the Beach Boys, Burt Bacharach, and The Carpenters through to Eric Carmen and just about any cheese’o’riffic ‘80s TV theme tune you can think of. I’d have to add David Bowie to that list: Ben Montero’s vocals have something of the space oddity at his quietest and crooniest. Montero’s lightly psychedelic synth-pop / soft-rock is, at one time or another a testament to all of those names and often, all of them at once - nearly drowning the listener in a flood of technicolour sound.

On the other hand the band have given the nod to the influences of fellow retro-pastiche fanatics like Ariel Pink and John Maus. Again, I also hear something of Man Man’s Honus Honus, both in Ben’s vocal delivery and the band’s madly broken addiction to re-imaginings of the sounds of yesteryear. Like all of them, Montero see history through a thoroughly warped looking-glass: drowning sounds in reverb, crashing psych into what used to be chart pop and indulging in more cheese than a family pack of Kraft Singles. They play the line between creepily misfiring tribute and ironic parody for all it’s worth. I loved this quote from Ben:

Romantic pop songs can be your life coach. Healing and trusting music. Don’t be afraid to use all your power and magic and don’t let the cynicism of others get into your bloodstream.

I’d be a bit afraid to meet people who actually feel that way, gosh. I’ll stay safely in the camp full of ironic posers. Although, I’ll be honest, much of what I love about The Loving Gaze is the stupendously saccharine pop. The honest-to-goodness schmolz is what saves this from being utterly crippled by cool, giving it a warmly beating heart, no matter if it’s made of plastic or not.

- Chris Cobcroft.