Sometimes you take a bit of a punt and prepare yourself to be surprised by a band or an album you're unfamiliar with, hoping against hope that you could add to your library of tunes and 'discover' something fresh, this was supposed to be one of those occasions but it's not actually turned out that way. Why not?
The Vatican Cellars hope to evoke the 'quintessentially English, folk-noir' sounds of Nick Drake, The Lilac Time or Tindersticks, which is odd as these three performers/bands sound nothing like each other and evoke little 'folk-noir' between them. Okay Tindersticks are gloom-mongers of epic proportions but here UK singer-songwriter Simon Hughes and California born and ridiculously named The Birthday Girl, augmented by a dull as dishwater rhythm section, don't even come close to sounding as despairing, as lost or as intense.
Singing about loss and death whilst strumming minor chords on your acoustic guitar with sweeps of cello or harmonium and melodica swirling around does not a heartfelt sound make, well not in this instance. Isolating individual tracks is pointless as they're all so similar. Whatever it is the band think they’re shooting for they're a long way off the mark.
www.myspace.com/thevaticancellars
www.mekongdelta.co.uk
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