The English psychedelic tradition I love isn’t the overdone bastardisation of the 70s, it’s the more simple, clear and expressive sound of the late 60s. Not really Nick Drake (something less deeply personal than his work), and certainly not Simon and Garfunkel (whose sound has been, essentially, the source for Belle & Sebastian), it’s been overlooked in recent years. But this could very easily be Syd Barrett – it has exactly the right echo and guitar sound, but it isn’t pastiche or revivalism, it sounds fresh, questing, forward-looking, Lucas woken up and dreaming of his idol, wanting her, driven to a kind of restrained insanity by her unapprochability. More to the point, James sounds positively in awe of the subject of the song, who is personified as the classic unreachable woman, somehow too perfect to grasp, but there’s no exaggeration or overt embellishment. Lucas’s vocal style is the combination of removed idolisation and desire for closeness that defines all the finest Romantic pop. One of his best moments yet.