"Pick of the sextet is arguably penultimate track ‘Blowin’ Up My Mind’, full of cunning linguistics and driven by a Wurlitzer straight off the set of Phoenix Nights .."
Hewn from the same school of Cambrian quirkiness that blessed the music world with Super Furry, Gorky’s and Cate Le Bon, Sweet Baboo, (aka Stephen Black) has been ploughing his own like-minded idiosyncratic furrow for the best part of a decade. He can also boast a pretty impressive productivity rate, the six-track ‘Dennis’ is EP number four, again released on the Adrian Pike founded London based label Moshi Moshi, and that’s not half of it, with a clutch of albums on top of that, the dude must have songs coming out of his ears!
Opener and part title track ‘We used to call him Dennis’ is a spiky, retro-sounding sun-drenched stomp, rounded off with a little snippet of mood music, straight off a test card transmission. ‘Do the Buzzard’ kicks-off with a Supertramp-era electric piano riff and veers a line between Belle and Sebastian and I Am the Resurrection….to fine effect I hasten to add.
Next is a short but really really sweet ode in the shape of ‘Mountain Top’, delightfully sparse piano mingling with acoustic guitar and mournful vocal, the heart well and truly on the sleeve here. Interestingly ‘Mountain Top’ contains a reference to Christmas and perversely the next track is ‘Don’t Be Alone (This Christmas)’ but hey, why shouldn’t Christmas songs be released at the start of the year too?
Pick of the sextet is arguably penultimate track ‘Blowin’ Up My Mind’, full of cunning linguistics and driven by a Wurlitzer straight off the set of Phoenix Nights before we round things off with the elegiac ‘Cuddle Up’ whose ascending melodic chorus perhaps doffs the cap to The Big-O.
LISTEN TO 'DON'T BE ALONE (THIS CHRISTMAS)'
Next is a short but really really sweet ode in the shape of ‘Mountain Top’, delightfully sparse piano mingling with acoustic guitar and mournful vocal, the heart well and truly on the sleeve here. Interestingly ‘Mountain Top’ contains a reference to Christmas and perversely the next track is ‘Don’t Be Alone (This Christmas)’ but hey, why shouldn’t Christmas songs be released at the start of the year too?
Pick of the sextet is arguably penultimate track ‘Blowin’ Up My Mind’, full of cunning linguistics and driven by a Wurlitzer straight off the set of Phoenix Nights before we round things off with the elegiac ‘Cuddle Up’ whose ascending melodic chorus perhaps doffs the cap to The Big-O.
Finely crafted pop in its purest form.
Words - Mike Price
'Dennis' ep is released 26th Feburary 2016 via Moshi Moshi
Sweet Baboo official