Lyrical debut from former Delgado
Taking his new name from "Under Milk Wood" Alun Woodward has kept the post-Postcard self-awareness of The Delgados, but moved on musically. His arrangements are complex folk-rock constructions, yet it's the grumpy, thwarted romanticism of the lyrics that you notice first, delivered in a Scots accent thicker than gruel. "Did your pony not love you? Reject you and buck you?" he asks on "Even Jesus Couldn't Love You", while in "Holy Fuck!" he's presenting "a Faustian despair". Like all the best bone-dry comics, he narrowly fails to disguise his angst. [4/5]
CHRIS ROBERTS