As you'd hope for in a band named after a man famed for his scientific devotion to lifeforms beneath the sea, COUSTEAU are a rare blend of the exotiC and the seriously melancholic.
This London-based quintet - along with heavy friends in the strings and brass departments - have been picking up TINDERSTICKS/ BAD SEEDS comparisons along the way and - in some ways - your reviewer an see why, as "Sirena" (again) presents a rich, dark backdrop full of adult emotions, lavishly orchestrated and beautifully presented.
However, COUSTEAU bring their own bulging bag of tricks to the party, too, and while parts of "Sirena" do recall both the 'STICKS (the graceful arrangements and skirling strings) and THE BAD SEEDS (the disciplined playing), there's enough originality here to keep the home fires burning.
"Sirena" opens impressively. "Nothing So Bad" and "(Damn These) Hungry Times" are both excellent; shaking up dramatic confections with swooping strings, patient soul-inflected melodies and Robin Brown's restrained guitar breaks crucial to the plot. Indeed, the unlikely wah-wah solo he pulls off during "Nothing So Bad" is a real high point.
LIAM McKAHEY'S fine, full-blooded croon is telling throughout, not least on a song like "Talking To Myself" - perhaps the closest COUSTEAU come to penning an anthem here. He really commands during this song, with fine "Whooh-oh-oh" backing vocals for support. Actually, listen closely and - to these scum-infested ears - McKAHEY most resembles CATHAL COUGHLAN in his less bile-flecked moments (hang on, do those exist?), although on a tune like, say, "No Medication", he recalls the spooky,close-miked BILLY McKENZIE of the posthumous "Beyond The Sun" collection.
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COUSTEAU are an accomplished and versatile outfit, liable to throw curves at the least likekly moment, like the surprise accordion solo that graces "No Medication"; or the way McKAHEY'S double-tracked vocals suddenly cut in and raise "Peculiarly You"s supper club ambience to a semi-crescendo; or the way DAVEY RAY MOOR'S distant blaring harmonica drifts in during "Salome". Blissful moments one and all.
In truth, COUSTEAU maintain the momentum effectively. "Last Secret Of The Sea" is every bit as eerie, windswept and evocative as the lyric: "Waves wearing wings, Ghost ships and tides" would suggest, while the lazily funky "Heavy Weather" gives way to a convincing maelstrom at the chorus and another bizarrely successful wah-ah solo from Brown. Cool.
Although they've already sealed the deal by then, album closer "Have You Seen Her" is perhaps the best track of all: brushed drums, tickled piano, weeping strings and gentle slide guitar interludes buoying up McKAHEY'S most nakedly affecting vocal of all. Indeed, "Have You Seen Her" is worth the price of admission alone.
COUSTEAU are one of those fine, genre-shunning outfits who are interested purely in the pursuit of excellence and honing classic curves. Stirring of arrangement and emotional of chorus, "Sirena" is as noticeable on the pop motorway as an E-type Jag in four lanes of Fiat Puntos.
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