The 6ths – Hyacinths and Thistles

I got this album for my birthday, and I’ve been checking it out ever since, on my work PC.

The first 2 tracks sound very Magnetic Fields, but that’s fair enough because it’s the same people, based at The House Of Tomorrow.

The first track brings Momus out of his box to sing the very intimate zither workout As You Turn To Go. Quite touching.

Give Me Back My Dreams is a nice little slice of melancholy, without being leaden and depressing. To paraphrase, “New York can be a lonely place on a Saturday night. And this is only Thursday morning.”

The simple croonfest He Didn’t contains some of the themes common to Stephen Merritt – hopeless love, and the promise of changing the weather/season/heavens if only you’d stay with me. Bob Mould does a good job of sounding like he means it.

I don’t like track 4. That kind of gin-soaked, lipstick-smeared, old-actress stuff leaves me cold.

And 5 is a bit throwaway. To me.

Kissing Things keeps Sarah Cracknell off the streets for a bit. What are Stanley and Wiggs up to now?

Night Falls Like A Grand Piano finds the star of Gregory’s Girl, Clare Grogan, sounding very much like she did on Happy Birthday.

It was inevitable really. The Dead Only Quickly has Neil Hannon explaining what really happens when we die. It involves putrefaction, and no religion, which is fine by me.

The CD ends with the lovely Oahu, a 3-minute song of tropical island romance, with a 20-minute synth fade-out, which had me looking out of the window with a dreamy smile on my face. And that’s saying something, when you work in Euston. Not much of a view, but this CD helped.

Cheers Robin.

The 6ths – Hyacinths and Thistles (CIRCUS CD005)