It's hard not to respond favourably to a band who's press release is headed "Now the drivel", have a drummer rejoicing in the name Guy LaGrange described as like "Charlie Watts if he was a lot younger and a bit more from Leeds" and suggest this self-released debut single is their "last stab at musical integrity before they make a living doing jingles for carpet warehouse adverts."
Well, if there's any justice, the Axminster and shagpile retailers oughtn't be allowed anywhere near this fine band, for West Yorkshire's excellent LOUDMOUTH SOUP (for it is they we so fervently discuss) have made a truly cracking debut single in double A-side "Skydiver"/ "Narcolepsy."
"Skydiver" is a corker. Shuffling into life via a horrendously catchy clicky guitar figure and shrugging into jazzy basslines, louche piano ripples and expectant drums from the erstwhile Guy, it rejoices in fabulously cartoony lyrics (sample: "I'm the scuba diving bad guy in the coldest seas" and "I'm a barracuda, I'm gonna show ya what's behind my gills") and has that great, thoroughly English whimsy-wrapped-up-in-mega-tunes angle well and truly sewn up, not to mention a harmony-laden chorus Ray Davies would stab you through the temples for.
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"Narcolepsy" again shows this bunch just reek of class, though it's entirely different again. This time, the backdrop is gentle country-ish ballad, with a fine, resigned vocal from Ben Hall, and both Gram Parsons and "Music From Big Pink" flitting in and out of the band's orbit thanks to some emotive pedal steel and judiciously-plucked banjo. Delightful, in a word.
Apparently, Loudmouth Soup have been plying their wares for the past four years and have been known to support similarly loopy geniuses as The Handsome Family and Ella Guru. Your beseiged reviewer is embarrassed by the fact he didn't know of their existence previously, but stoked up by this single, which should - any form of justice prevailing - be the first of many. Besides, if you don't buy it, I'll personally boycott carpet showrooms the length and breadth of the country. You have been warned, dear reader.
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