Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos

From the first 'sonar’ blips of 'A sea shanty of sorts’ you feel that this could be a special album and by the time the Indianapolis crew have finished with 'Bookworm’ you know that it is and that you want to go back and start it all again. This is addictive.
The music looks back to singer/songwriterisms of the past and there is a limited amount of electronics thrown into this mix of real instruments. The vocals are a sort of cracked croon with the music underlaying the voice and never threatening to overwhelm it. However, this is no sixties/seventies throwback ' the sound is absolutely now and the subject matter also.
The songs, though, are the best thing about the album, full of character and characters and leaving strong images of a world that the listener can only imagine. On 'Skeleton Key’, which features the best melody on the album by far, we are led in by a cello and acoustic guitar until Richard Edward croons 'I did a sick, sick thing to that girl’ and leaves us wondering whether this is an apology or breastbeating. 'Quiet as a mouse’ is anything but, almost the only fully amplified track and one could easily imagine Thom Yorke fronting it. And so it goes: the plaintive, yearning 'Jan is bringing the drugs’, the wistful loss of 'Paper kitten nightmare’. with a muted cornet over French conversation.
The whole album deserves to be listened to and it is probably one of the best of the year.