Sweeney Straddles The Sun
Erect (Boffo Bear)
Unless the youngster featured on the cover is a young ‘Sweeney’, the provenance of this debut album is unclear and indeed mysterious. And listening to the music doesn’t help much either. From the opening ‘Carried Away By Melody’ with its recorded-in-a-bucket sound and ludicrous squeaky toy percussion, it’s a bizarre ramble through several eras and indeed realities, as wide-eyed prog punk mixes with oddball psychedelia.
There’s a decided Super Furries influence on several tracks though - a clue perhaps? Though the Welsh language tune ‘Bwyda Fi Agwedd’ is more likely to be from a Welsh Stranglers tribute band.
‘Castlemilk Town Hall Disco’ is in some ways the strangest track here - though in some ways the most conventional - an archive interview folllwd by what can only be descrbed as white rap.
The oddest thing of all is that somehow it works.
Which takes us to the crucial question - is it any good? In a word, yes. This shouldn’t work, but somehow, the bizarre experiments going on in Sweeney’s head all fall together and without exception bring something worthwhile, whether it’s ‘Bunraku Hallucinations’ and its Residents-gone-legit orchestrations, or the summery lo-fi pure pop of ‘I’m My Own Worst Enemy’.
Sweeney’s enormous strides will undoubtedly take him places.
Donald Bush
