Sorry Love

Lupe Nuñez-Fernández is one of those wispy-voiced female singers of slightly uncertain pitch who listeners either love or hate on first listen. (Think of Isobel Campbell, Rose Melberg, or Pam Berry.) Pipas, her duo with multi-instrumentalist Mark Powell, would have been lost in the shuffle of dozens of similar groups in the indie boom of the mid-’90s, but a decade later, their fourth album Sorry Love sounds engaging and fresh, if not particularly unique. Twee pop fans will know exactly what they’re in for on Sorry Love: sweet little pure pop songs that sound like the grandchildren of Petula Clark’s ’60s hits (the utterly enchanting “Basements”), brief acoustic reveries seemingly inspired by Young Marble Giants and the Marine Girls (“You Crash”), flirtations with Saint Etienne-style electro-bossa nova (“Long Songs”), and mopey tunes about lost loves, with all of the ten tracks over and out in less than 24 minutes. That’s exactly what Sorry Love delivers, and in its own adorably low-key way, it’s just enough. – Stewart Mason