The Maccabees: Toothpaste Kisses

Closing proceedings on their debut album Colour It In, ‘Toothpaste Kisses’ is a perfect comedown after so many minutes of hi-res hyperactivity and candy-coated indie-pop hooks and sinkers. What’s super surprising, though, is just how brilliant it sounds as a standalone offering: hardly there compositionally, a stripped-bare arrangement of acoustic guitar and sparse percussion, the song’s brought to life by an affecting vocal from Marmite singer of the past year Orlando Weeks.

And then it happens: a whistle solo to see the song to its muted finish. Wonderfully out of place, the faux-pas is made better by the fact that the whistler can’t actually whistle very well, at all. It’s like a kid’s first attempts while skipping home from school, the theme from Thundercats wobbling about their yet-to-fill brain. Charming and pleasingly understated, ‘Toothpaste Kisses’ brings The Maccabees' current album cycle campaign to an end (presumably) in an unexpectedly lovely fashion.