This ten-tracker from former Magnetic Fields singer LD Beghtol represents the contents of two individual EPs - ‘Big Top’ and ‘Encore’, funnily enough. Yet despite this, the set hangs together perfectly well as a proper full-length album.
The titles may often be better than the songs themselves, although there’s a dry wit at play in the lyrics. The upbeat tunefulness of the music contrasts with the darker or more melancholic subject matter, from the cotton-candy referencing nostalgia of indie-popper ‘Last Clown Standing’ to the incisive commentary of ‘Hideous Ethnic Stereotype’, which tackles ‘familial horrors including religion, incest and booze’ and finds LD casting endless plagues upon your house wrapped in a classic pop casing decorated richly in buoyant brass.
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Elsewhere, ‘Big Top’ combines breezy classic 60s brit-pop with vintage 80s indie, and the cover of The Psychedelic Furs’ ‘Yes I Do’ is a definite standout. Respectfully preserving as it does the essence and form of the original, there’s an individual twist in the execution with the addition of a fairground organ and big strings.
It might not be solid gold, but there are plenty of nuggets here to more than make it worthwhile.
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