The furrows of the folk fertilised fields of Americana have provided a bumper crop in recent years with bands from the whole wide world adopting check shirts like they were the height of fashion. Occasionally though, you do encounter a band that hits the mark and actually strikes out beyond between the rather rigid limitations of the genre to create something original.
So whilst Mad Staring Eyes sound entirely conventional – though with some nice musical flourishes especially from Matt Park and his pedal steel – they mark themselves out as something different with the quality of their songs. Not for them the faux country sentiments of the genre pretenders as instead they follow the wry, observational style of the likes of Mickey Jupp (“London Road”) or Nick Lowe (“A Little of What You’ve Got”) on their path to entertain you and, topping it all off, you have Alex Simler’s dry and worldly voice to sell those well chosen, if downbeat, words to you.
“Talking to the Operator” is a smart album. It sound like it should be something else whilst it is actually eleven examples of mature British pop rock song writing. One hopes that there is more to come from this London band.