Song: John Myrtle – How Can You Tell If You Love Her? review

by Chris Hatch

John Myrtle continues to inhabit the world of sunny, seventies-inspired pop on latest single, How Can You Tell If You Love Her? His boundless enthusiasm and mastery of melody once again masks feeling of insecurity and anxiety – ‘Seems like you’ve always been waiting for an answer/it never comes/So all you do is wonder.’ 

In terms of melody and musicality, Myrtle takes the earthy, upbeat, acoustic pop of yesteryear (see Little Feat, Love, bits of The Byrds and The Kinks) and trims it down to two minutes of bright blue skies, verdant fields, and shafts of soft sunlight. It’s unabashed and unashamed in its influences – a brief but beautiful guitar solo at the three-quarter mark would feel trite and derivative in other hands, but with Myrtle you feel that he isn’t using the genre as a gimmick – instead he lives and breathes it.

With summer around the corner, Myrtle’s latest string of releases on Sad Club Records evoke a timeless pop quality – making them the perfect accompaniment to patchouli-scented days spent lazing in the sun.

Debut album, Myrtle Soup, is out on 18th June on Sad Club Records.

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