An album that began life in the evidently busy mind of Dublin's Paul Mangan (who is, to all intents and purposes, Clockwork Orchestra), A Fish For a Heart operates on the same kind of frantic propulsion that once fed The Cardiacs, yet manages to be very much its own beast.
And a mad beast it is. While there's a melodically irresistable structure that holds this album together, what happens within it is an excitable mix of twisted instrumental lines and manically yapped vocals. Compelling yet difficult to fathom tales weave around guitars and strange keyboard sounds, darkening the mood at times ('Thoughtful Thieves', for example) but raising it often enough to ensure the tempo is something akin to a ride on a merryground ride overseen by an operator who's imbibed something his boss doesn't know about and then messed with the controls.
The result is you frequently go into 'extra spin' as on tracks like album opener 'The Generator Girls', whose infectious melody you'll hear opening my Dandelion Radio show this month.
Soft Bodies have had, as usual, the solid good sense to put this out and it's available now on download and CD. Find out more here.
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