Or, in case you’re among those nagging about Danger Mouse taking away the band’s earlier rawness, I’m pretty sure you’ll stick to this one instead of Attack & Release. Sure, there’s enough of the primal acid blooz wail to keep the BK purists satisfied, but it’s other stuff that make this an actual solo record. The pair of ‘Mean Monsoon’ and ‘When I Left The Room’ sound kinda like Amy Winehouse with balls (not that she lacks any), ‘When The Night Comes’ (co- written with his father) is like an unreleased Van Morrison tune, ‘Trouble Weighs A Ton’ tackles Big Pink-era Band, ‘Street Walkin’’ riff-sploits early Stooges, while ‘My Last Mistake’ is a soulful beat number, almost verging on the edge of pop. An early contender for the album
of the year so far, if you ask me. Goran Obradovic
THE AUTUMN LEAVES Long Lost Friend Dabbler CD
www.myspace.com/theautumnleaves
Something jangles in the heart of Minneapolis. This is the Leaves first album in several years, and they have enlisted Gary Burger as producer, although
the sound here is very different to Gary’s old band The Monks. The Autumn Leaves are all about gentle melodies and early Byrds style folk-rock, with lots of 12-string acoustics, Rickenbackers and yearning vocals. Although there is a cover of ‘You
Can’t Be Serious’, an obscure B-side by UK pop psych band The Mirage, most of the tunes are originals, and the overall feel brings to mind notable ’80s melodic strummers, such as The Go-Betweens, Lloyd Cole and The Church. Normally reviewers have a finger cut off for using cliched phrases such as ‘jangling’ or ‘chiming’ guitars, but with The Autumn Leaves it just can’t be helped. Phil Suggitt
COLIN BLUNSTONE The Ghost Of You And Me Ennismore CD
We all know, do we not, that Zombies vocalist Colin Blunstone possesses a miraculous set of pipes that could heal the sick, part the seas, repair the
economy and reconcile the Israelis and the Palestinians. So when it comes to a new release by this national treasure, it’s a given that the singing is always going to be beyond reproach. The real question has to be whether everything else – material, production, arrangements – meets the same standards.
Well, in this instance, yes and no;
or rather, no and yes, if we take it in order. The album begins with three songs, including the title track, which unfortunately
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sacrifice emotional engagement on the altar of bland efficiency. But then, from ‘Second Avenue’ onwards, the sound of a hot band on clock-watching tickover is replaced by the sighing, levitational string arrangements of Blunstone’s One Year compadre Chris Gunning, and the remaining seven tracks are, consequently, autumnal beauties in the ‘Say You Don’t Mind’ mould. Joy is unconfined. Marco Rossi
THE CAMPBELL STOKES SUNSHINE RECORDER Makes Your Ears Smile Jack O’The Green CD
www.myspace.com/jackothegreen
Now there’s a thing. I’m not normally prone to auto-suggestion – not since that awful night with the stage hypnotist and the bath of chutney – but my
ears started smiling straight from the first song on this album, namely ‘Track One’, which smartly references “the pop-psych of The Bee Gees” and which simply has to be the sprightliest song-about-writing-a-song since ‘Suffice To Say’ by The Yachts. The Campbell Stokes Sunshine
Recorder is the lovely pseudonym adopted by Shindig! supremo and Toffee Sunday Smash pilot Andy Morten, and sunshine is indeed the key ingredient in this crop of beaming, witty, high-spirited quality pop belters. Andy plays all the instruments with brio and wears his impeccable tastes on his sleeve throughout – directly so in the charming wish-fulfilment of ‘Tony Hazzard’. Highlights range from the Badfinger/Big Star pathos of ‘No Name #7’ to the Tomorrow-style canter of ‘TV Jingle Man’ with its sly quotes from the bass lines of ‘So You Want To Be A Rock ’n’ Roll Star’ and ‘A Quick One’. I wanted to offer some
constructive criticism here Andy, but I can’t bloody fault it at all. With those credentials, it couldn’t really be anything other than a class act. Marco Rossi
THE CHEMISTRY SET Alchemy #101 Skittlebrau CD
www.myspace.com/thechemistrysetuk For a while in the late ’80s and early ’90s the very English psych-pop sound of The Chemistry Set seemed to be on every fanzine flexi and indie comp
going. Thousands of recent downloads of their unreleased album Sounds Like Painting inspired Dave McLean and Paul Lake to restring the Rickenbackers and manhandle the mellotrons. The lay-off has proved a good thing, as this six track mini- album contains their best recorded work to date. The tunes are full of dreamlike
harmonies, incisive guitars and mellotron washes. The likes of ‘She’s Taking Me Down’ and ‘Look To The Sky’ are always ambitious, inventive and highly melodic. Always popular in Spain, the
Spanish connection continues with production by Manel Ibanez and a French version, ‘Regarde Le Ciel’ by Catalan chanteuse Suzette de la Grace Faberge. Many modern CDs are way too long, but, at half an hour, this is short but perfectly formed. Phil Suggitt
CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX 200 Tons Of Bad Luck Invada CD
invada-records.blogspot.com
For those of us who hadn’t quite had our fill of Meddle-era Pink Floyd, that hole can now be filled by Bristol’s open- ended neo-prog collective Crippled
Black Phoenix. 200 Tons Of Bad Luck kicks off with the winningly titled ‘Burnt Reynolds’, and straight away all the hallmarks are there: glacial tempo, sad-eyed minor chords, minimal and bluesy lead licks played on a Strat with the pickup selector in out-of-phase position. This is followed in short order by
‘Rise Up And Fight’, which borrows the dugada-dugada rhythm bed from ‘One Of These Days’… and by now you should be grinning at this inspired combination of devotional craftsmanship, barefaced cheek and – most importantly – the construction of an entirely fresh recipe from classic ingredients.
Formed as an experimental
project from members of Mogwai, Pantheist and Electric Wizard among others, Crippled Black Phoenix drape a compellingly thick cloak of darkness over the brooding songs of founder Justin Greaves, yet have sufficient discipline to hang right back and let in shafts of sunlight as and when required (‘Whissendine’, ‘Littlestep’). And if it’s all too much to ingest in one hit, this double album is also available as two single albums, The Resurrectionists and Night Raider. Marco Rossi
HAAKON ELLINGSEN The Plum Album Termo CD
www.termorecords.com
Haakon Ellingsen, the protagonist responsible for this sweet, sunny and delicate album, is a new name to me. I looked at the picture on the rear sleeve and
surmised that this bearded Norwegian was either cradling a ukelele, or else he was 28 feet tall and was holding a normal guitar. A spot of homework later, and I
discovered that Haakon was in fact a member of neo-psych avatars The Last James during
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