Tangled Star
Let's Adjourn To The Garden
Hidden Shoal Recordings

It's always exciting (and always a pleasure) to check out a new record by Tangled Star. Craig Hallsworth's combo usually create blissful pop-rock, and I guess Let's Adjourn To The Garden is no exception.

Let's Adjourn To The Garden is Tangled Star's 4th recording (first full album) for Hidden Shoal, and the label describes the album to be "...a beautiful soup of slow burn power pop, addictive hooks, melodic right turns...". Let's Adjourn To The Garden is a 9 song journey through Hallsworth's musical garden. A close to 40-minute ride through semi-prog-pop landscapes. The single track "Head In The Sand" is one of the winners here, and when describing it last moonth I wrote "...sugar-coated, yet a bit raw...". I mentioned 'Kiwi' as a reference; bands from New Zealand's Flying Nun label (Straightjacket Fits, maybe?). Well, the album's a nice blend of ballads and slightly fuzzed, more up-tempo poppers. "Crazy Bit O'Truth" is a fine starter, and one of the songs sailing up as a fave track off the album. Another ace is "Hasn't Made For Freedom", which is starting out as a ballad, turning into a fuzzy power-pop gem. "Someone's Walking" is a very fine slow-paced song, while the closing "Theme" is another of this record's highlights. It's a finish with quite a finishing touch.

The Go-Betweens have been dropped as an outfit Tangled Star are related to musically. Another act (Australian, as well) is maybe Richard Davies, even though he's more a singer/songwriter type. Well, maybe Davies' old band The Moles (they're a bit more psychedelic) and Cardinal (the project he had along with another singer/songwriter, Eric Matthews) could be mentioned as well. Another musical relative is Archer Prewitt of the Chicago scene (he's a member of The Sea and Cake), except Tangle Star is a bit tougher than Archer. However, Tangled Star's guitar pop is of the out-of-fashion kind, and I guess the band's happy (and proud) to be like that.

Well, if Let's Adjourn To The Garden maybe isn't pure gold, it still got some golden flavours and moments. Like a reviewer summed up Tangled Star's music: 'Tasty stuff'.

Copyright © 2013 Håvard Oppøyen