Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys
Casualty Menagerie
self-released

Walter Sickert and his broken toy army (consisting mostly of head doll Edrie) make a curious, melancholy noise on this little EP. I suppose you can call it darkwave with a splashing of seedy cabaret and candelight steampunk.

"No Room" is replete with Sickert's sad vocals and shattering toy noises. It's an odd stately gloom that emerges even as a song of looking at ruined yet splendid gardens in Eastern Europe transpires. "Pale Horse" gallops along in a Rasputina-esque fashion with the certainty of breaking hearts wherever it goes. "Revenge of the Rats" is about lab animals turning on those experimenting on them, Sickert using a metaphor that can apply to anyone downtrodden enough to contemplate revolution. Edrie plays the newly invented instrument trumzoo for our enjoyment. Maybe it's hard to take people playing toy instruments seriously, but these are no cutesty Disney tunes. This is surreal, playful and sublimely sad songs. This is the next film playing in your head when you turn off the light and prepare to go to sleep.

Copyright © 2008 Anna Maria Stjärnell