From The Record Shelf: Meet The Mull Historical Society (a.k.a. Colin MacIntyre)

The one-man band has always fascinated people, probably ever since Brian Wilson wrote and produced his 'pocket symphonies', and while having the Boys around was nice, for a lot of people the Beach Boys were essentially a one-man band, at least until Wilson lost the plot (and arguably never found it again). Then, in the 1970s Todd "A Wizard, A True Star" Rundgren was considered a veritable one-man band. And from there on, every decade seemed to have a couple of one-man bands. At the beginning of the 2000's, the biggest name in the one-man band business was Badly Drawn Boy, who became a critical sensation with The Hour Of Bewilderbeast and stayed a critical and (on a modest level) popular favorite for years. 

But my favorite one-man band from that time, as you have seen from the title, is a young (at the time) Scotsman named Colin MacIntyre, who spent his youth on the Isle of Mull, with an ad inspiring him to choose the venerable Mull Historival Society as the namesake for his pop project. And what a fabulous pop project this is. Luscious melodies laid on top of luscious melodies. 

MacIntyre's immersive search for the perfect pop song sometimes leads him to excess - "Barcode Bypass", his first single that won him NME single of the week in 2000, is prolonged, somewhat unnecessarily, with an elongated coda to seven minutes. But those first five minutes are a hell of a tune, as is pretty much everything here on Loss. I didn't keep tabs on MacIntyre or Mull Historical Society afterwards. But from time to time, when the mood is right for some lush pop, I return to Loss. 

For once, I'll leave things short and sweet and instead direct you to Mr. MacIntyre and Loss. It won't be yours, if you check it out...