From cover, credits and notes this is seemingly another home-produced album from a singer-songwriter, so it’s a pleasant surprise when the opening chords of ‘Monna Lisa’ kick in. Ell’s one-man-band sound is considerably bigger than you might expect from the cover photo of a bloke and his guitar. The opener’s big big sound,with piano, drums and synthetic strings, is lush and full, bring forth comparisons of great songwriters like U2 and Radiohead (and perhaps not-so-great ones in the David Gray & Razorlight mould). Ell likes to go for the epic every now and then, so it’s a bit Muse on ‘Oxegen’ – but in general it’s pretty melancholy stuff; bizarrely the downbeat title track with its refrain “take a deep breath and say goodbye to a brother and a sister in a photograph”, musically calls to mind the Pet Shop Boys more than anyone else, though the trademark scratchy guitar sound dismisses any thoughts of electropop and big camp hats. The chipper ‘Deepheart’ – has a beat completely at odds with its lyrics (“your head is full of pain and I feel ashamed”) but overall it’s a pleasant outing. ‘Ghosts’ has the flat delivery of the Durutti Column, but ‘May’ returns to that big sound for what would be a rousing finale – if it wasn’t for the reprise of ‘Armour’, all fractured piano and effects which starkly brings the album back down to earth again. For raw, heart-on-the-sleeve pop, look no further.
