Reid twins’ new tunes

of fondly-remembered songs.

There are big hits like the song which broke them in 1987, Letter from America, and the almost unnaturally successful (I’m Gonna Be) 500 Miles; there are songs which are perfectly designed to commemorate big life events in eloquent and relatable terms, among them Let’s Get Married, Life With You and And Then I Met You; and the occasional but fully committed foray into the political, particularly Cap in Hand’s support for Scottish Independence.

Yet what’s really impressive is how keen a songwriting ear the pair retain for new music of equal quality.

This tour is in support of their recently-released eleventh album Angry Cyclist, a top twenty hit in the UK, and the songs from it are strong indeed. Among them, the title track bemoans the state of politics in 2018 as a metaphorical cycle ride on treacherous roads, Streets of Edinburgh is a tender love letter to this city, and The Battle of the Booze nails down the middle ground between bleary-eyed drinker’s nostalgia and alcoholism. “We’re happy people, we don’t have many songs in the minor key,” we were told before the atypically downbeat Restless Soul, a sound which suits them in its recall of Northern