Yes, this album has a great title and terrific artwork. It would make me pick it out of a record shop rack to have a look at it which is half the battle won. The fact that this is a band and not a person called Michael Knight should also be noted before we go any further.
Once I started to listen it was clear this was full-on, out there orchestrated indie pop that sort of reminds me of Polyphonic Spree crossed with the Fifth Dimension - no it really does! The title track opens the album in a blur of choral vocals and brass inflections. It's infectious and simply flies by.
Cliches is by far the longest song on the album at over 4 minutes and packs loads in like Tindersticks gone upbeat and with the backing vocals sort of a bit New Seekers. Blugh (sic) is more of a piano dirge and is rather mournful and well Blue.
Life Hacks #36 and #37 is rather weird. It has layered vocals and odd drums with strings. It could almost work in a church setting and it's oddly affecting. Being and Snowthingness is sort of out of key and time too. A little song that may just about work.
I prefer Fright At The Museum. It picks up the pace somewhat as the story of the fright unfolds with the violins giving way to the choral vocals and brass. It has a lot going on in a song that is less than two and a half minutes long as if it has learnt from the melodramatic girl group singles in the 60's how to pack everything into a small space. Very cool indeed.
A Switch in Time Leoprine is even shorter at a mere 39 seconds and still feels complete. Miss Anthropy is far more upbeat sounding quite jaunty and nothing like its lyrical content. It still sounds like it could be three or four songs in one in its short time span.
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Sure, Call Over is not about being on the Knowledge and calling runs all day and night long of course. Instead, it's about hoping for a date in so to speak. It is pretty jangly and intense. Hang On I Need to Count The Stops Again is a more expansive pastoral pop affair. It's quite cool but I don't think it's about being on a train ride.
Goodnight Children is almost a piano lullaby; very gentle and slightly sombre. A Stoppard Fop Is Right Half The Time gets as Physics-centric as you'd hope a tune wrapped in cool strings and a gentle laid back air could be.
The album closes with the Shit of Sisyphus and, well, it sounds far more gentle than the title suggests. Nice classical piano with strings in the deep background. I'm not sure they quite pull this one off and it's sort of an odd song to bring an otherwise intriguing album to a close.
Find out more at Jigsaw Records online
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