Album Notes

Focused on the songwriting of Raymond Weir, the first album by Scottish band The Eisenhowers sits comfortably in the adult pop genre. Clearly inspired by the likes of Elvis Costello, Aimee Mann, XTC and Crowded House, ‘Almost half-undressed’ features 12 literate, punchy and often thoughtful songs covering a wide range of topics, including sex, celebrity, love, money, serial killers and even parenthood.

The tunes are mostly direct and guitar-driven, while Weir’s vocals are pitched somewhere between the gutteral Costello (circa ‘Armed Forces’) and the genial Glenn Tilbrook. The arrangements are tight and imaginative, while the production is always punchy and clean. There is a nice balance of light and shade, with plenty of neat harmonies and more catchy choruses than you could shake a stick at.

Like the acts that influence them, The Eisenhowers are lyrically cute and this album exhibits a healthy dose of cynical humour. There are some nice throwaway lines, like “you learn from experience that you don’t learn much from experience” from the marvellous ‘25 o’clock’, a would-be single with loads of musical reference points. Featuring retro synths, a disco bassline, crashing powerchords and harmonies straight out of the Beatles songbook, it’s simply made for radio play.

Several of the songs appear to focus on dysfunctional characters. The creepy ‘Plastic Jesus’ starts with a news story about a weeping religious figurine and ends up with a gun rampage, while ‘Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein’ features an insane celebrity couple filming a pop video in the jungle, complete with starving natives as the hapless extras.
In a rant worthy of Mr. Costello himself, the song sneers at the dark heart of these showbiz kids corrupted by fame, power and cosmetic surgery. The bizarre guitar motif befits the whole absurdity of the situation: “yes, you can be in my video, but just try not to breathe”. In the acoustic ‘Abracadabra Man’, a sinister politician (described as “another Napoleon” selling snow to Eskimos) goes door-to-door, signing people up for an unholy crusade.

But for all the sardonic vigour, there are some lighter touches too. ‘If I had to make a list’ is a jazzy little song about parenthood which manages to avoid cloying sentimentality, while both the dreamy ‘Useless Love’ and the atmospheric ‘If satellites should fall’ extol the wonders of romantic infatuation, although in the latter, Weir can’t resist a punchline about the star-crossed lover who, when “staring up from solid ground” is inevitably “going to lose his way again”.

According to their press release, this set was compiled from two ‘failed’ album projects. On the evidence of ‘Almost half-undressed’, the next Eisenhowers collection -due in the summer of 2008- promises much.