A most promising debut, despite the fact that Chris Evans has championed them. There's a delicious, tangy psychedelic flavour throughout Shoplifting, where trumpets, strings (some especially fine cello incidents in particular) and electronic weirdness mesh awkwardly but attractively with the sometimes country-fied rock set-up. Sure, they reference the past (token Beatles allusion), but at least Straw do it subtly, while remembering, crucially, to make sure each of their songs has a tune - basically, there's plenty more here from where 'The Aeroplane Song' came. If only some of their contemporaries would follow suit. |