Natalie McCool @ Electric Circus, 21 Sep

This year's dropped more indicators than usual that the world we occupy is a crooked, unjust place. Still – if there's any decency left in 2016, then Natalie McCool's second album The Great Unknown will get all that it deserves. 

After tight, impressive support slots from Small Feet Little Toes and Georgia Gordon, McCool and her two-piece band breathe electrifying life into a well-worn indie-synth format. On record, McCool's voice, sleek hooks and iced, spacious synths sound pristine. Off record, their obvious talent for total precision loosens slightly – and all for the better. Theirs is an intimate, accomplished set of songs which are pop at heart, but hold the kind of emotional, deeply involved narratives that much bigger names will learn to envy.

Older fans push through newer fans to offer hearty heckles of “go on yersell!” And, as if in acknowledgement, McCool lays down the gauntlett with Dig It Out – a defiant, triumphant tune written several years back, that's been revived for the album. Feel Good is ready for far bigger spaces than this one, and When You Love Somebody (“I believe love is more than chemicals,” she prefaces) is a sparkling, heart-warming ear-worm. For newer cut Fortress, McCool winningly, persistantly encourages Electric Circus to offer backing vocals. Our crowd responds in croaky, enthusiastic voice – far from the choir the band originally recorded with, but full of warmth just the same. 

“I've taken the mic off the stand and pop-starred myself,” she jokes, mid-set, after setting down her guitar. Bearing metric tons of charisma (as well as a Saltire badge), Natalie McCool's clearly on the road to win hearts and minds. Our bet is that she'll triumph, and then some. [Katie Hawthorne]