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Oct 28, 2010He may not possess the eloquence or understated flair of a (Neil) Hannon or a (Richard) Hawley, a fact highlighted as the cheesy horn arrangement of 'Run With The Boys' sends things all a bit too Phil Collins, but most songs here play host to a charming menagerie of ideas and perhaps prove that the band dynamic he's lusted after to this point was the one thing holding him back.
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Q MagazineOct 28, 2010The jazzier the arrangements, however, the more effective his soul-searching becomes. [Nov 2010, p.105]
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UncutOct 28, 2010Most of the tracks were written on the piano and jettison guitars for chamber orchestrations. There are Brechtian oom-pah songs, elegant tangos, and two bruise-coloured ballads that might be the best Barat has written. [Nov 2010, p.81]
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Oct 28, 2010Try as he might, Barat can run, to Europe and beyond, but he will always find it hard to hide from his past.
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Oct 28, 2010More worryingly, there's a nagging sense that he's decided to dress it up in grandiose, emotive sentiments simply to camouflage a lack of real emotional investment.
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Oct 28, 2010With its insipid, limp first half this is most certainly not the record to do it. The listening experience is made all the more irritating and frustrating given the sudden improvement in the final third of the record, but no part of it will ever be described as life changing or world-shattering.
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Oct 28, 2010This self-titled snoozer misses any of the zip that made the Libs and, to an extent, erstwhile offshoot Dirty Pretty Things arresting.