Trips and Falls

First things first… I thought this lot were Canadian but the singer’s accent, a cross between Ricky Gervais and Mumford and Sons, is quite bizarre.
And why do they sound like the Wedding Present halfway in on ‘Static is a Serious Issue?’ This is an album that’s all over the place, even just in the opening track, while ‘Freedom of Homogeneity’ sounds like it’s finger-in-the-ear folk music with bizarrely overaccented vocals from somewhere south of Bristol. Happily, as the tune kind of ambles along, a guitar lick kind of kicks in and suddenly we have the catchiest tune imaginable. Though again, with that switch from sludgey to jangley delivery it could easily be a Gedge-penned tune.
As you can tell, it sounds like we’ve got a folk album – another folk album – on our hands, but as you can also tell, it doesn’t quite work out that way. And for that we have to be grateful. You might need to give it a few listens – and in the case of ‘No More Limbo Yay!’ with its looney tunes brass breakdown halfway in, quite a few more – but as with all genius, there’s insanity within. Put up with their idiosyncrasies and you might just make a friend for life.