Dictaphone Blues - On the Down and In

Rating:

* * * *

Here's a record from local jack-of-all-trades Edward Castelow that could just be an ideal soundtrack to this topsy-turvy world we live in. As we all know, life's not always peachy, but in the words of Mr Castelow: "I'll be damned if I'll stay at home and cry". This wise lad knows there's nothing worse than a wet pillow.

On the Down and In

, his debut solo album after stints playing in a number of other bands, is bound to keep your chin up by way of passionately delivered ditties like the barbershop style of

Your Eating Is You

and

100 Suns Inside My Lungs

, with Castelow telling us in his enthusiastic lilt that he's going "to take this opportunity to have another beer or three and roll up the last of my weed".

At first the album of catchy guitar-driven pop comes across a little hokey - like it has been recorded on a dictaphone, perhaps. But it's this quality that makes the 11 songs so likeable and charming.

You Put It In Me

brings together the rat-a-tat and shuffle of drums, an underwater piano, and some sprinklings of glockenspiel;

Pale Shade of Blue

has a Weezer-meets-Green Day groove with Billy Bragg singing; and Castelow's visual eavesdropping on

A Counter Observation

- he used to work in a record store - is simple and wry, without being condescending to these obsessive freaks.

Best of all though, and showing just how inspired this chap is, is

Spooky Room

that slopes along with the lash and squelch of 80s beats and synth, morphs into a gospel serenade midway through, and then slinks off once again to the end.

You can tell Castelow takes his music seriously, but it retains a fun-loving charm and personality that so often gets lost when the songs mean so much to you.

Scott Kara