I wasn't aware of The Mutton Birds until I say them at WOMAD probably in 1996. A friend had spent some time in New Zealand and had recommended this Kiwi band. I also saw them about a year later in Canterbury, and really enjoyed both gigs. I bought this CD at the time, and really enjoyed it, but haven't listened to it for some time.
This is really the point of this blog, to rediscover those CDs that don't get played as much as they should.
There's nothing new or remarkable here, just a collection of twelve pop songs, mostly written by singer Don McGlashan, all very accessible and enjoyable. We open with Straight To Your Head, a song whose darker, stalkery lyrics merit a close listen, stepping up slightly with the wistful She's Been Talking, before the sparse and brooding Trouble With You. Things brighten up with the joyful April, slowing back down with Like This Train, a pleasant, but unremarkable song, which starts to feel a bit leaden by the end. But while no brighter in tone, Another Morning feels much deeper and interesting. Ten Feet Tall is probably my least favourite song on the album, something about it doesn't quite work to my ears, but the far brighter Come Around (the only song on the album written by guitarist David Long, and their most successful UK hit at no 81) is a real feel-good song, well performed.
Crooked Mile is a short instrumental which adds little, leading us to the final trio of songs. While You Sleep is a lovely song, slow and warm, which always brings a smile to the face, while Inside My Skin (another Long composition) is a short piece, guitars mixed up, vocals mixed down, not really going anywhere, but taking the listener to the album's finale, Envy Of Angels, McGlashan's lovely song of homesickness, on which he pulls out all the stops, including the euphonium, for a fitting end to a lovely album. Apart from two minute's silence before the thunderclap - works well on vinyl, but less so on CD as you watch the seconds tick by.
4* - perhaps generous, but it's certainly worth listening to. A really good album.
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