No don't be afraid of the dark, be afraid of this CD which I'm finding it hard to believe anyone would actually want to listen to.
From the opening track, Grateful, I'm anything but grateful at having to listen to this as Phil can't really sing all that well. Plus it sounds musically confused to me, like they have too many ideas and need to strip things back. Or maybe Phil is simply better suited as a sideman than front man.
While he might think he is summoning the spirit of Kevin Ayers and the Canterbury scene but if he is, it's the bargain bin version as I found most of this album highly irritating. I have played it quite a few times, trying to find out why people like Phil as I know I've been introduced to him a couple of times over the years and have seen some of the bands he's been in including The Bitter Springs and Jowe Head & the Demi Monde, but I still just don't get it.
Also, having a song called Raw Vegetables In Earls Court just about sums up what's wrong with the album. It's a song that just makes me want to press the stop button due to its sub-Syd Barrett whimsical stupidity.
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Dearly Departed is almost as good as it gets and by that I mean s sounds like a third rate Jazz Butcher outtake. On Distant Len's Enchantment he attempts to go a bit Nikki Sudden but gets it all wrong as he proves he ain't got it in any shape or form.
By the time I get to Getting Away With It, I want to throw rotten eggs at this bad musical hall pastiche of a song. Though he finally just about makes me smile with Lady Of the Lager which would be the only tune on this dog's breakfast of an LP you might want to listen to again.
By the time I get to the closing Bitter and Twisted I am indeed bitter and twisted at having listened to the thing all the way through more than a few times to find out why I should like it. Bah!
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