Customer Reviews

Fancy Barrel

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

a fantastic album! just when solo acts were getting boring something like this comes along. Zany pop music with lots of instruments and a certain originality. The songs are as interesting as their titles and the lyrics are very clever. While I have been listening to his earlier stuff for a while, i always liked it but it never quite got me, this is a real step up. Reminds me of belle and sebastian, gorky's zygotic mynci and badly drawn boy. One of the albums of 2005.

this album is brilliant forget james blunt and the likes, Aidan has finally made a perfectly fomed "proper" record that can't be pinned to one bland category, as is his unique style, fancy barrel will keep you smiling and humming for days and weeks to come.
buy it now.

Aidan's debut album surpasses all the mini albums that went before. I play it in the car all the time and even the younger members of the family (6 years to 10 years) know the words to "Love song(with aneurism)" and "Jam will suffice". My favourites are "Every time I lean I fall asleep" and "Donkey Blood". If you like quirky lyrics and really unusual but memorable melodies this is the album for you. Some of those tunes just stick in your head forever!

After two celebrated EPs, Aidan Smith decided to move from Twisted Nerve to Analogue Catalogue and, with the change of labels, upgrade from a 4-track to a professional studio for his debut album. Fortunately, the ramshackle nature of his approach has not been tainted.

Smith manages to blend jauntiness and tragedy with some ease and is more than able to seamlessly negotiate between the every day humour of Jam Will Suffice and dark tales of violence like The Cuckold, without ever letting his smile slip. In fact, Smith plays the latter track with so much levity that the listener may initially miss the fact that the song is actually a bitter story of suicide.

Yet, Fancy Barrel is not just some throwaway comedy album. The opening track, Aeroplanes, Pigs etc, offers some excellent jazz drumming, whilst the sinister pseudo-lounge core of Bert’s Violent Rage is another example of Smith’s slightly skewed approach to songwriting.

Whether elated or afflicted, Fancy Barrel proves that Smith is a talent without any obvious limitations.