'Pyrrhic Victories' is the debut album of intelligent alt-pop trio BUZZARD LOPE. They hail from Bedford, Birmingham and Brazil and share a love of Tom Waits. Peak Of Evolution starts things off. “I put my tongue in my cheek/ make a little room for the foot in my mouth”. It’s all seeing, arch knowing and self-referential in a good way with a sparse arrangement and interesting instrumentation. An accordion and clarinet meander their way through it and a drunken man tries to maintain his dignity, defiantly.
Walk Don’t Run is a more ambient piece and makes good use of Roger Illingworth’s vocals in a musical sense. Blue Arsed Fly is “running around” in a repetitive but more than useful fashion. It is a pretty and clever song. The title track is a longer piece and consequently develops its themes more delicately with initially heavily affected vocals that name check Dresden Dolls.
Those same vocals then clarify but sit nicely in the mix, subtle yet confident and the whole is quite stirring. Girls In The Straw is set to acoustic guitar and tells the tale of a day spent on the farm with friends. It would be a great folk song if it were folk and is all the better for not being. The Dry Eyes Of E H Gombrich who it would seem was an art historian of some repute comes next. Not sure if the song is about him or something else? Maybe poor little Johnny? I am afraid this track is a little too knowing for me.
East By East, meanwhile, was the first single from the album and having watched the video I can indeed proclaim it is ‘arty’. You know black and white and a man in an animal costume. Not sure it makes for a good single (it goes quiet noisy quiet if that’s the thinking behind the choice?) but to be fair this is a proper album and not a collection of singles. Jugged Hare is dissonant and vocally reminiscent of Peter Gabriel with its lower register and female backing. It has a Chinese motif that swings it along if that’s possible?
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Continuum is a lovingly crafted love song. “This is all we are/ all that comes to hand/ a simple setting sun/ a coffee from a polystyrene cup”. It reminds me a little of Belle And Sebastian. Fag Ash Crow starts out “You come at me with your bright hello...and I will not hear you leaving/ how can I be truly sure/ that you were ever here at all?” Roger is still working that Gabriel register at this juncture and it is working for me.
Blue Bow concludes the album with vocals and piano and is Tom Waits writ large. All in all this is a great album from a band who know what they’re doing and have the confidence to put it into action.
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