Oscar
Cut and Paste
Album · Alternative · 2016
Deadpan vocals can’t mask the hooks and emotion flooding the Londoner’s guitar-pop. With a dad who was in early ’80s one-hit-wonders The Regents, Oscar Scheller is genetically pre-disposed to the furiously catchy new wave of opener “Sometimes”. He cavorts through multiple styles on this debut though, splicing his lo-fi indie scratchiness with dub on “Be Good” and cajoling hip-hop rhythms, art-rock and melancholy together on “Breaking My Phone”. Bold, singalong melodies are the route into every song but it’s Scheller’s innocent romanticism–particularly on the lovesick “Fifteen”–that makes Cut and Paste an enduring pleasure.