I came across this band while researching musical settings of Philip Larkin’s poetry. (Lines and phrases from Larkin’s masterpiece ‘Aubade’ underline the ending of the fourth track on the CD, ‘Wear and tear’; and there’s also a song called ‘The long slide’ – surely a reference to Larkin’s ‘High Windows’?) Of course I had to have it for my archive. Usually when I acquire a CD containing a song inspired by or relating to Larkin, I listen to it once or twice and file it away, but not this one.                                                                 


The album has been on my car CD player ever since I got it. Five of the first six songs on the CD are outstanding, including ‘Wear and tear’ and ‘The long slide’. When I first listened to the whole album I made the mistake of trying to categorize the music, but each time I tried, the next song swallowed my theory and spat it out. After a couple of plays I realized that even though the songs are distinct and varied (‘Wear and tear’: 21st Century offspring of New Order and the Pet Shop Boys (?); ‘Foil for a girl in a posh frock’: structurally, reminiscent of The Lover Speaks; ‘The long slide’: Nick Lowe brainstorming with George Harrison?), they all sound like French Possession. A significant achievement for a first album.


Great care has been taken over the arrangements; particular mention must made of the understated vocal arrangements and, when it is used, the programming. A listen to the tracks will bear this out - so don’t take my word for it!


I can’t pretend that I love every song on the album (what a great album that would be – for me!), but this album contains at least 6 superb songs. I can’t remember the last CD I bought on which half the songs were excellent; and none were pap! (Ok, I can – KT Tunstall’s ‘Eye to the Telescope’, but those albums are few and far between)


Although, rather unexpectedly, I can’t seem to get ‘Deep in the long grass’ out of my brain, my favourite song on the CD has to be ‘Controlled emotion’: a sparse and beautiful meditation on the quiet destruction relationships suffer when one party is rendered emotionally and psychologically impotent (‘My problem is full-blown’) by the apparent indifference of the other: ‘The way you won’t cry though love has died’. I can easily imagine this song being performed by any number of artists from Keane to Kylie, Tony Bennett to Tori Amos. The sign of a truly classic song.


Deep in the long grass, deep in the long grass…’ – blast!!!
                            Read more...