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To give you an idea of the uncomplicated high-jinx
this group likes to wallow in it should be enough to point out
that on their website they describe themselves as "Schopenhauer's
favourite band". Hard to imagine more fun then, Bigard had
better watch out! But, really, it has to be said that this fourth
album from Songdog, a Welsh trio formed of musicians long-schooled
in the ways of the folk-pop scene, doesn't exactly inhale deeply
of joy and cheerfulness, I might even say that it's among the
unhappiest of records that I've listened to in a very long time,
but that in no way detracts from the sepulchral beauty that takes
shape throughout the whole course of this long album, formed of
two acts, "Love Lust" and "Love Lost" (I'm
telling you, guys, it's no bundle of laughs!). Set in an acoustic
soundscape of piano, guitars and strings, the songs really are
sublime and recall those of a band shamefully unrecognised, the
Apartments, architects of an 80s masterpiece forgotten today,
"The Evening Visits and Stays For Years", where you
find the same melancholia, the same disenchanted, perhaps drink-sodden,
voice. Elsewhere, there's a comparison to be made too with one
of the most beautiful records of the late 90s, "Deserter's
Song" by Mercury Rev. You get the impression these musicians
have seen it all, their music evokes nights spent in watering-holes
bellowing along to the sound of the accordion --- check out the
sublime sea-shanty "The Devil Needs You For His Squeeze"
--- it really is magnificently evocative, and at the same time
slightly quaint and old-fashioned. The vocal is sublime, bristling
with a vibrato to send shivers down your spine, and the frequent
splashes of mandolin render the whole thing very moving. Despite
its length --- there are 18 songs in all! --- the record pulls
off the remarkable feat of never losing momentum, a real achievement
in itself. If you liked some of the British folk bands of the
80s such as House of Love or the Pale Fountains then you'll go
wild over this lot and you'll be right to, this music stinks magnicently
of celestial hobos and their dead-beat dogs.
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