This is easily the most enigmatic CD I've been asked to review, the press release doesn't name any of the band members or what they may have done previously. All it does do is say that Bubbles is the first single and that the album will be out on Maddie records on the 3rd of October.
On looking on the bands website (www.theconspirators.co.uk) the mystery continues as the bands site never mentions the names of any of the conspirators! All I have to go on is the fact they are from Yorkshire and the picture they send on a CD and of course the music.
Ah,the music! I like this approach as it allows me to judge them on this alone and on that front they win with me as the opening song All That They Told me sounds a bit like Belle & Sebastian stripped of the art school leanings. Jekyll & Hyde sounds cool in a 70's folk rock with female vocals kind of way with hints of Linda Thompson going nicely with the bottleneck guitar.
Bubbles, the single, is nowhere near the strongest song on the album as it features the guy doing the main vocals and to be honest I prefer the woman singer in this band. Still, musically it sounds decent, in a pleasant would-sound-good-on-Radio 2 kind of way. Disease and Guilty both remind me of Downy Mildew again with hints of Linda Thompson in the Bright Lights era. A notable break up song.
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As I wrote most of my notes without a song listing in front of me I will say of the rest of the album that it has a couple of such great break up songs. What's Going On With You is as good a question as needs asking and a good song to boot. By the time they start asking Whose Got the Money? I'm also hearing a good few hints of Dagmar Krause in the vocals.
Overall I really like this album and the hint of mystery as to who the conspirators are. I do hope that they get to play outside of Yorkshire too as I would love to find out if they sound as good live as they do on this CD. It's something that I want to hear again and again which is a very good sign indeed.
The Conspirators online
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