There’s something distinctly nocturnal about Held the Pulse. Throughout its runtime, Glasgow singer-songwriter Stewart Traquair seems drawn to the point where a city starts to empty out, conversations become looser, memories sharpen and optimism has to fight a little harder to survive.
Across five tracks, Traquair moves between psychedelic colour, soul-inflected songwriting and the bruised romanticism of someone still looking for beauty in places that have seen better days.
Produced, recorded and mixed by Roscoe Wilson, the EP has a lived-in quality that suits its themes. It never feels overly polished or overly careful. Instead, the songs seem to carry the residue of late nights, old relationships and half-resolved thoughts.
‘Girl, Your Mind Is a Dangerous Game’ sets that tone with a sense of psychological unease, its pull coming from the collision between attraction and uncertainty. The title-track, meanwhile, brings a warmer, gospel-leaning lift into the EP, widening the emotional palette without breaking its atmosphere.
Then there’s ‘A Great Time to Be Alive’, whose title alone captures much of Traquair’s appeal. There’s irony in it, certainly, but not outright cynicism, as his writing often seems to occupy that narrow space where disappointment and hope remain stubbornly intertwined.
Born in Pretoria and now based in Glasgow, his songs carry an interesting sense of displacement, with warmth and faded glamour sitting alongside the harder imagery of neon streets and post-industrial surroundings.
Armed with a 12-string guitar and a clear affection for glam, psychedelia and old soul, he creates songs that feel familiar without settling into easy nostalgia. The comparisons to Teenage Fanclub and Syd Barrett make sense as shorthand, but Held the Pulse works best when he sounds entirely like himself: romantic, slightly frayed, melodic and perpetually curious.
In all, the EP feels like a collection of moments caught before they disappear. It captures attraction, doubt, survival and the stubborn belief that something beautiful might still be waiting around the next corner.