Bad Penny

VINYL FORMAT. Spectrals is 21-year-old Louis Jones. Mixing ingredients of pop, soul, doo-wop and garage rock ballads, it sounds vintage but current, while the Yorkshire lilt in Jones's voice (a result of his hometown, Heckmondwike) places him firmly in the UK, rather than Detroit. Spectrals has always been a small operation. Now in its third year of existence, Jones started by recording in a friend's knocked-together studio and posting the tracks on MySpace. Despite being intended for his closest friends, his songs soon attracted the attention of discerning labels all over the world: from Brooklyn's Captured Tracks (Dum Dum Girls, Wild Nothing) to Brighton's Sex Is Disgusting (Mazes, Human Hair) to Underground Peoples, where he eventually released last year's Extended Play. Bad Penny is Spectrals' full-length debut album recorded with Richard Formby (producer on Wild Beasts' Smother). Jones's knack for penning a great tune is more obvious than ever. In the eleven original songs, not heard on any previous tapes, singles or EPs, he documents his relationship with his longtime girlfriend, from the great to the not-so-good. "Love songs are the kind of songs I like," he says, "not all of them are nice, but they're all feelings I've had."