The Research ‘The Old Terminal’.

Wakefield’s The Research first popped into view in 2006 with the literally-quite-good ‘Breaking Up’ LP, touring to rave reviews with the likes of Maximo Park and Mystery Jets before EMI dropped the poor souls in 2007. Having gone home, regrouped and retooled, the group are once again ready to fire off another collection of songs rife with loss, love, and fearful longing – this time with none-more-indie label This Is Fake DIY. Packing a headily commercial mix of tender defiance and alluring assurance, ‘The Old Terminal’ is a commendable stab at the mainstream that sounds like Snow Patrol staring proudly in the mirror at their first chest hairs.

Boasting thirteen sparky pop songs that pay you the compliment of being blunt by cutting straight to the chase, ‘The Old Terminal’ bounds out of the traps boasting more hooks than an abattoir and bursting at its lo-fi seams with gleeful girlpop harmony and frenetic guitar strummery (bedroom-brewed for that extra earnestness). ‘Lost Souls In The Vapours’ and ‘I Think She’s The One I Love’ are so rooted in charming wonderment that they could cause even the most dead-eyed hipster casualty to at least temporarily lose the will to be cynical. ‘Golden Rules’ is a hearty lump of sunshine-through-the-clouds joy and ‘Treasure Every Measure’ is just glorious, exhibiting an explosive elation that it sounds like it could coax Bambi’s mum back to life well before the second chorus.

Extended plays might leave you slightly bloated on its relentless saccharine sugarpop, but if you like your indie chock full of weather-beaten sincerity and wide-eyed whimsy you’ll doubtless have a corking old time.