There’s something beautifully crafted, familiar and winsome in the cool debut single from Peplo. There’s a half-urgent lushness, a shine-eyed charm and hustle, and an un-rushed push and presence that seeps through the track. It’s tough not to fall for its lure.

Through the lightly plucked jangle of chiming guitars and the alt-Britpop gloss of The Cranberries and Teenage Fanclub, there’s a complex rise and fall of arrangements. There’s a fine line to tread between fey softly softly and sugar-kissed risk, but we never stray too close to cute.

Always smooth, always moving, with shiftings in rhythm, we keep vocals anchored at centre. Cit Lennox’s voice switches easy from soothing to whisper to gutsy, as the music makes space to breath around her.

We stay grounded, enamoured, comforted, and impressed, right up to the thin shades of glam towards the end that might hint at a coarseness to come… or a roughness not too far behind them. If you hunt down their demo, Dolly Mixture, Marine Girls and C86 indie emanate through unpolished beginnings, where a less sweetened take on late 80s lofi shimmers and jerks through a warm-tangle retro (I hope they don’t mind me sharing that too).

Peplo’s ‘Tall’ is out now. And as always this track and others from ROTR featured artists can be found on Rats On Run Radio.