The debut album from Hull’s Horse Guards Parade is a rare treat. A musical and lyrical attention to detail shines through on every track, and a wry sense of melancholy humour pervades; (“She looked like a Henry Moore, so he had another drink…”). It’s a summer hangover record for a Sunday morning, coming back up.

I hesitate to make comparisons. There are hints of west coast Americana, filtered through a post-rock awareness, but it’s still a distinctly English sounding collection of songs, (“The smell of the bins and the smell of your sin. The holes in your tights…” from The Lies), and the more I play it, the more I like it

There’re no studio credits on my promo copy, but whoever produced this deserves a mention for a sterling job in the Albini mode – the instrumentation shines through, and the dynamics of the songs are allowed to breathe, unencumbered by bombast or trickery. When the tracks build, like in the corking, How Can You Take Me Dancing? you irresistibly go with them, and when they lilt into wistfulness, you go there too.

Ten Songs is a real slow-burner, and all the better for that. .

Light the blue touch paper – but don’t stand back.

(Ten Songs is released this summer.)

http://www.myspace.com/horseguardsparade

By Eric on May 28, 2010