TOTT 2015 #8: CLEAN CUT KID

At #8 is the magnificent Clean Cut Kid

A manager in January. A record deal with Polydor in April. A headline set at Reading & Leeds Festival for BBC Introducing in August. Support slots for Circa Waves and Shura in October through to December.
No one could refute that 2015 was Clean Cut Kid’s year; their rise in these last 12 months has been nothing but breakneck.

You wouldn’t expect anything less, however, from a band who announced themselves with one of this year’s most arresting indie pop tracks. ‘Vitamin C’ was a track that was full of substance and bereft of pretence; it’s loaded sonic landscape thrummed loud enough to rattle your entire frame and force you to pay attention.

But the attraction of Clean Cut Kid is not their elementary radio pop inclinations. Clean Cut Kid work because of their juxtapositions. They can be buoyant but they can be melancholy, they can be polished but they can be raw, they can be breezy but they can be profound. With subsequent tracks ‘Jean’ and ‘Runaway’, this foursome from Liverpool proved that they were one of the few emerging acts this year who could deftly mix emotional weight with infectious hummability.

With a tour of the U.S. in the pipeline and a debut record penciled in for a release in the summer, it’s hard to imagine that 2016 won’t be Clean Cut Kid’s year too.

Words by  Chris Haywood and Tip by Henry Carden

CLEAN CUT KID was originally featured on June 8th with words from  Rich Anderson

View the full TOTT2015 longlist, playlist and countdown HERE