The Metro-gnomes are Andrea Tomlinson and Mark Rafferty and they hail from Glasgow. Bluesbunny has seen them perform live and was therefore looking forward to reviewing these long awaited six songs. We are happy to report that our patience has been rewarded.
Opening with the lilting, sentimental "I Should've Known", Bluesbunny felt the pain of his new shoes just fade away. "If Only I" is a lullaby to loneliness that leads us on to the reflective, even mournful "Just a Memory". "Words Unspoken" has lyrics that are the kind of musical poetry that reminds us of Dylan at his best and Ms Tomlinson's vocals cast a spell over us on "One Man Show". The closing track on this collection is "Real Sweet Talker". Now this is something special. A warm, yet unsentimental, commentary on the difficulties of being single - "He does his very best to be a real sweet talker…but he just can't find the words". The Metro-gnomes have surely found the words for him.
Whilst the above descriptions may make you think that this band is twee and introspective that would be a mistake. These are songs of delicacy and charm and that is something that is not often found these days. We would even go as far as to say that they almost made the Bluesbunny give up cigarettes, beer and six foot supermodels and instead take up poetry and the search for a nice wholesome girl to settle down with. All the harsh realities of life faded away as we listened and were replaced with a rather appealing fuzzy warmth. Quite an achievement in only the time taken for six, short, sweet songs. Available (on CD and vinyl) from Lucky Number Nine Records.