AN outlier presence since the 80’s, it seems electro pop has well and truly returned to the forefront of the mainstream charts. If the trail was blazed some years back by the likes of La Roux and Disclosure, then it’s been duly harvested by everyone from Clean Bandit to Sam Smith. Add in the emergence of the likes of CHVRCHES, Future Islands and Purity Ring, not to mention Belle & Sebastian’s electro retrograde on Girls in Peace Time Want to Dance, and it’s safe to assume that this particular epoch of modern music will have left Morrissey in an even more scornful state than usual (as he once quipped back in 1983: “there is nothing more repellent than the synthesizer.”)

Last week sees two of the country’s big hitters go head to head by releasing albums on the same day in a battle of north and south: London’s Years & Years versus Glasgow’s Prides. Formed in 2013, Prides shot to prominence in August last year when, in the space of a single week, they performed at the Commonwealth Games to a televised audience of 7.5M people, supported childhood heroes Blink 182 and then topped it all off by being announced as headliners on the BBC Introducing stage at Leeds and Reading.

On The Way Back Up, Prides demonstrate the type of soaring synth pop which has saw them fast tracked to the big time, which culminated in a main stage performance at the weekend’s T in the Park. What the likes of opener ‘I Should Know You Better’ and ‘Messiah’ might lack in complexity, they make up for in exultation as booming synth notes thunder and clatter against one another amid a furore of crisp harmonies; while on ‘Let it Go’, the band showcase their knack for softer ballads, as frontman Stewart Brock’s stirring vocals enter Robert Smith territory.

‘Little Danger’ opens with Brock’s voice fraught with effects before bursting into a sunburst chorus ripe for mass singalongs. Less sanguine but just as communal is the acoustic ballad of ‘Same Mistakes’ as Brock, torn by regret (“I don’t want to feel like I’m making the same mistakes again, maybe this time I’ll begin to believe I could let you in”), flexes his soaring falsetto.

Things don’t stay down for too long with ‘Out of the Blue’ – a song said to be inspired by Fleetwood’s Mac ‘Big Love – as it’s earworm synth hook quickly dissipates any self-pity. Closing out the album is the stripped down ‘The Kite String And Anchor Rope’, a sombre piano ballad demonstrative of the band’s versatility.

With The Way Back Up, Prides prove that there’s more to them than mere synths and dance songs. It might be another of its type in an already saturated market, but this is muscled, anthemic power pop which can be confident of standing out from any crowd.