Mitchell Museum - The Peter Ports Memorial Service

  by Paul Waller

published: 5 / 7 / 2010

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Review

Not being a fan of the Flaming Lips, after the first listen of this the debut album of Scotland’s Mitchell Museum I was far from overwhelmed. It was as if Wayne Coyne and co. had been injected with happy juice. So I put it away for a few days and thought I’d come back to it later. Well, later is here and my oh my what a difference a few days make. I now find that I have 'The Peter Port Memorial Service' on repeat spins. Addictive is not the word for this monstrous beast. The track 'Warning Bells 'has found itself battling along side Wax Fang's 'World War II (part 2)' for my song of the year. Here singer Cammy's voice shines. Unfortunately there is no distinctive Scottish accent ala Biffy Clyro ,but the sheer joy spouting from this mans mouth is enough to call of the hounds of the most jaded of hacks. How can you not fall in love with the ecstatic spirit that flows through these tracks? There is some fantastic pacing (and a lot of thought) at work on the order of the tracklisting here as well. On 'No. 3' the pace is slower andthe hook of the chorus is lusciously intent on lodging itself in your brain for the remainder of the day. A fraction of a second passes before drummer Raindeer (seriously) pounds in with the intro of the magical mid paced 'Mission 1' before it effortlessly melds into 'Tiger Heartbeat'. Somehow Mitchell Museum refuses to let you skip tracks. To get the most from this record you have to listen to the album as a piece rather than a track here and there on your iPod's shuffle mode. If you get over the initial shock of a band playing ridiculously happy music (thankfully last month's Fang Island album got me in the mood for it) then repeated listens will indeed reap repeated rewards.

Track Listing:-

1 We Won 2nd Prize
2 Warning Bells
3 Room For Improvement
4 The Peters Port Memorial Service
5 Take The Tongue Out
6 No. 3
7 Mission 1
8 Tiger Heartbeat
9 Cut Lantern
10 Copy + Paste
11 Bleed The Bottle
12 A Series of Instructions
13 Novels and Diaries