- Label: 'Song, By Toad'
- Genre: 'Indie'
- Release Date: '1st June 2015'
Our Rating:
Don't let the cover image or title deceive you - this is neither the new Moby nor a Laurie Anderson rip-off.
What it is is a stripped down EP (running time 26 mins) from Edinburgh's Neil Pennycook, plus a few mates, who was once the man behind Indie-pop near legends Meursault. Having tired of the baggage of being in a band he now prefers the freedom of flying solo.
Out as a download (or cassette), this is the first in what he promises (threatens!) will be a series of informal releases.
It opens with a self-deprecating signature tune -Oh, Supermoon! ("I have been in my time an imbecile") - and includes the track Death To Meursault which puts the final nail in his former group's coffin.
Pennycook's songs are abrasive, plaintive and vengeful. Supermoon vs Black Friday is particularly fierce: "Lately I've been dwelling on my own", he rages as he admits to bouts of heavy drinking to face down his ghosts.
The piano-driven Klogfgeist is less caustic but just as heartfelt: "I am sorry for this man I have never known".
For all the apparent dejection, there is the solace of black humour; "The last thing that the world needs now is another song about the fucking sea" he deadpans on Ode To Gremlin
But just in case you think he's gone soft, he concludes with a spiteful Christmas tune (Cobra vs Mongoose) which is full of ill will to some unlucky soul: "Though it has been said that I wished you dead, tonight we must compromise".
Pennycook spews out some dark thoughts which seem all the rawer through the cut-price DIY production values. It is an honest record to the point of being a little disturbing.
Future volumes will show if there's to be a happy ending.
