Quite possibly my favourite album of the year so far, it comes far closer than I hoped to recreating the low-key charm and beauty of mini-album Vale Industrial over a whole 45 minutes (and with none of the same songs!).
The music is generally beautifully fragile, hushed and restrained without being at all monochrome, and Darren Moon has a decent voice, but it's the witty and poignant lyrics which really lift it above the crowd. Song titles like 'Too Drunk To Realise I'm Making You Want To Hit Me' and 'You Stopped Letting Me Hold You In The Night' give a good indication of what is involved - mainly tales of drunkeness, sadness and disappointment being desperately covered up with humour to varying degrees of success.
Aside from a couple of more rock moments now added to their sound (most notably the single Cowbell Blues which does indeed feature some awesome cowbell) this is not likely to be especially immediate stuff and may take a while to sink in as I found with the mini-album. Indeed it's hard to imagine it being at all successful, or even where they would go next if it were to be; whether music so rooted in the mundanities of life for its humour and relatability would survive megastardom seems doubtful, but for now this a subtle treasure worth seeking out.
I'll blog Charlotte Church or someone soon to balance this out, honest.
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