As it was when he known as André Herman Dune, Stanley Brinks is a man happy to cling to his idiosyncrasies and keep to his own path in relative obscurity.
This is his third album with The Wave Pictures who are David Tattersall (lead guitar) , Franic Rozycki (bass) and Jonny 'Huddersfield' Helm (drums). The band practiced by doing Jonathan Richman covers; a good grounding as Brinks' song writing has a similar quirky naivety to that of Richman.
When posting the demo tape of these songs from Berlin, Brinks forgot to put a stamp on the package. As a consequence, the album was recorded live in Soup Studio, London with minimal rehearsal time and a fair amount of improvisation. On balance, this works in his favour as it gives the songs a loose, spontaneous feel.
Brinks' stock in trade is to make you see mundane, everyday objects in a fresh light. For instance he compares his heart to a sink strainer (Time For Me) and recalls a moment of intimacy while listening to an expresso machine (Light And Slow).
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His imagery is unusual but evocative; in One Minute Of Darkness he sings of how the city "smells of wet stone after the rain" and declares that "all you need is a bible and a hair dryer" in No Goodbyes.
Best of all , in the final track, Not To kiss You, he manages to bring a sensual significance to the cut of a shirt collar and a pair of jeans which flare neatly at the ankles".
It's all a bit hit and miss so, inevitably not all of it comes off. Spinola Bay in particular seems to be full of in jokes and is more irritating than amusing.
On balance though this is an album lovers of twisted pop songs will do well to track down.
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