Arnold

Arnold is a three-piece British outfit whose richly textured harmonies and dreamy atmospheres yield a singular strain of pop. Incisive lyrics charged with feeling sit alongside playing that feels both loose and sumptuous. Formerly known as Patio, the band lost its singer without warning, after which the surviving members—Mark Saxby on guitar, Phil Payne on bass, and Phil Morris on vocals and drums—carried on and adopted the name Arnold in honor of Payne’s dog.

Creation Records advanced the funds for a 1997 demo that the label ultimately issued unchanged as the six-track debut CD The Barn Tapes. Morris, whose singing occasionally recalls David Gilmour, supplies most of the melodies while Saxby supplies the words, yet the trio maintains that all decisions remain collective. Onstage, Morris moves to guitar, Rob Ariss plays keyboards, and a substitute drummer fills out the lineup.

The group’s first proper album, Hillside, came out on Creation in 1998. Its songs drew from the same vein of opulent vintage pop as Big Star and the Beatles, much like their U.K. peers Teenage Fanclub and Radiohead, while also folding in touches of American-indie slowcore and dronecore and retaining a commitment to lo-fi methods.