Proper Ornaments - 6 Lenins

Proper Ornaments are yet another band to be represented by the wonderful folk at Tapete Records in Hamburg in Germany , and whicch has included on irs roster over the years acts such as Camouflage, Der Plan, Brockmann // Bargmann, the National and Vampire Weekend. Good company indeed for a band that themselves have had a a lot of hard times along the way, but who now seemed to escape the deep, twisting tunnels of illness, divorce and drug abuse. Their third album ‘Six Lenins’ which sees the band master their finely tuned sound as their songwriting dexterity refuses to give in. Based in London, the Proper Ornaments are purveyors of some wonderful jangle pop, and led by James Hoare (also of Ultimate Painting/Veronica Falls), also feature Max Claps (Toy) on guitar, Danny Nellis (Charles Howl) on bass and Bobby Syme (Wesley Gonzalez) on drums. The album was apparently recorded in James' home studio in Finsbury Park, London where they say they made their finest recordings to date on a newly-installed 16 track Studer machine. Over the years the Proper Ornaments have honed their craft to the extent that this album seems to be the pinnacle of what they are really about. The songs on 'Six Lenins' are polished and well thought out. This is probably due to the fact that Max spent a long time in bed recovering from hepatitis and was so tired he couldn't do anything else apart from play guitar. The songs slowly started to appear so by the time August came they realised they had five new songs each which took just 2 weeks to get them all down. The content here belies their natural nervy sound. Surprisingly mellow, it starts raucously with the opener 'Apologies', which recalls Six by Seven and early Spiritulised and continues with jangled guitars giving way to increasing psychedelic sections in its more sombre and darker moments. For me 'Where Are You Now?' is the stand track, while 'Can't Even Choose Your Name' sounds like something from the Everly Brothers' catalogue. 'Bullet from a Gun' has an electric drum beat accompanying the harmonies, and the whole offering ends with a track 'In the Garden' which they like to play out live and is probably the fastest track on here. It's hard to describe their sound but if you like a sweet-sounding psychedelic pop trip then this will fill your bag. Good stuff!

Track Listing:-

1 Apologies
2 Crepuscular Child
3 Where Are You Now
4 Song for John Lennon
5 Can't Even Choose Your Name
6 Please Release Me
7 Bullet from a Gun
8 Six Lenins
9 Old Street Station
10 In the Garden