There are solo artists, and then there are SOLO artists.  James Hill, who apparently dislikes his name so much he hides behind the "Bikini Test Failure" moniker, is one of the latter.  Playing 99.9% of the music, singing 99.9% of the vocals, producing, taking the photos, doing all the promotion himself - it's a one-man operation all the way.  Heck, even when he uses a sample, it's a sample of himself, aged four, babbling into a microphone.

Fortunately, this one-man-everything didn't end up recording an insular piece of muck that no one but himself could understand.  Instead, it's an extremely accessible piece of British pop/rock that'll have you humming after 30 seconds, and singing along by chorus number two.  "Are We Having a Good Time Yet?", "Fling" and "Oxygen Thieves" are fantastic songs with clever-but-not-snide lyrics that keep me pulling the disc out of the rack again and again.  Buy the CD now, and impress your friends when you tell them you-knew-him-when. 

So what's the deal with that squirrel on the cover?  Not sure.  Maybe this James guy owned him money.
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Psychedelic, Beatlesque with some XTC on the side as is eveident on the track Nobody Knows Anything.Very wide and happy.Well worth the listen.

Doug Cash
www.swrecords.net
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