Released
23/10/06,
Dogbox Records (BOX16)
Read the reviews here
front
The tracks, by Kirsten Stuart, Kitten Painting
LE14
Where streetlight stars twinkle up at you from lonely puddles.
Faint
Praise
Wild eyed and flared of nostril; this is a song that rattles and stomps
its way into your parlour, stamps a shapely foot and fixes you with
a steely glare before delivering a stream of bitchy invective. Then,
revelling in the hysteria, it drags you outside to be dashed against
crags of wrung-necked guitar, whilst keyboards vindictively stab you
between the eyes.
We
Only Stayed Together For The Kids
A frisky domestic epic that wrings a dizzy drama from a drab situation
with yawing guitar, joyous drum thwacking, even a sprinkling of Tinkerbell
dust. If this isn’t a giddy ride on a fondant coloured merry-go-round
horse then I don’t know what is.
What The Housewives Don't Tell You
An
exhilarating rubdown with a glittery pan scourer in which an elegant
piano intro is booted up the arse by a rabid guitar that then goes on
to gnash fiendishly at the heels of gleefully squealing keyboards. Canters
along exuberantly, careening off the walls leaving electro pop smudges
on the paint-work. Altogether now ‘Oooo-weee-ooo-weee-ooo-wee-oooo…’
Single
Strap yourself to the dipping, gliding vocals and squeeze your
eyes tight shut for a hovering, tumbling ride through the skies of hopelessness.
Oh I can’t bear it, bubble-wrap your heart for it’ll surely
crack on contact with this sofa-bed lament.
Relief
An ache you can luxuriate in with perfect, crystalline, shabby angel
vocals. Look out for the 57 varieties of keyboard on show here. One
minute it’s downily rubbing up against spitting, crackling guitar,
the next it’s winking cheekily. Then here it comes hurtling through
your system like a melodic shot of adrenaline, making you sit up straight
and clear eyed as the whole song spreads its arms wide and trembles
expansively.
Taking
Cover
An ugly duckling becomes a swan. Initially, this song casts
awkward glances from behind the curtains with lump-in-throat vocals
and thrumming speed-bump bass. Then, before you know it, it’s
shucking off the stiff collar, stroking your cheek tenderly, rolling
in a string-section on a little drinks trolley and enfolding you in
its slender arms. Recalcitrant charms indeed.
WC1
Why not move to the big city for a faster, brighter, better
life?
Sick
Of DIY
The devil makes work for idle hands…so quit your fiddling for
here is a neatly fizzing pop song done up with a bow made of deliciously
slippery guitar and chirruping keyboards. Pull at its ribbons and out
rolls a bona fide anthem to craving, complete with head tossing, hip
twitching, big grins all round, sing-along chorus.
Making
Progress
Itchy fingered guitar, Atari plinks, and stretchy chewing-gum keyboards
wrap around your ankles. Still, you spin faster to the euphoric soaring
bits and ponder how once ‘Pong’ was the height of technology,
and batting an electronic ball back and forth across a blank screen
was all you needed. Now look at the mess we’re in. A monologue
catalogue of everyday consumer nonsense ratchets up the pressure, then
nosedives into a glorious scribbly guitar frenzy that ricochets towards
oblivion. Where do you fit in?
Mishandled
Hazy underwater keyboards and lullaby-ing guitar sweep you
into a 3am waltz across dew-splattered, litter-strewn traffic islands.
Simultaneously powerfully stark and gazing-into-the-distance peachy.
Ripens like a slow smile into a snarling swoon of a song full of bruised
sunrises and rueful looks.
Luxembourg
vs Great Britain
Out of step foot soldiers raise your pale fists to the skies, hear the
sound of a soaring, snapping pop revolution and feel that swoopy thing
behind your sternum happen. Exasperated and frustrated? Prepare to be
elegantly rowdy, and snatch back what is yours.
Down
A Sunny Street
The ghost of a shivering guitar flickers behind fractured-heart vocals
that spill bitter melancholia. The delicately restrained piano playing
grows ever more feverish and desperate. End of the night, ties loosened,
or ties noosened? Your choice.