Originally written by Julian Ridgway · 30 May 2005
Cousteau
Sadness
Label: Endeavour Release Date: 30/05/2005
It’s hard not to judge everything Cousteau do against ‘Last Good Day Of The Year’. They seem to have been trapped behind its spent melancholy and *Bacharach pop classicism ever since. And having lost songwriter *Davey Ray Moor too, there’s probably not a collective hush of high expectation surrounding this new single.
After an introduction that sounds like ‘Can We Start Again’by The Tindersticks they take off at a pace which is, for them, positively sprightly. But behind the tempo, it’s clear that down-in-the-mouth, warmly old-fashioned pop songs remain at the top of the new Cousteau’s agenda.
Liam McKahey may be singing high, but the mellifluous Scott Walker throb is there as ever. And they’re still happy to stand against fashion, though in the somewhat out of character form of a slick Steely Danish guitar solo.
It might not top their debut, but ‘Sadness’ finds them sounding rejuvenated and with the hint of a devil-may-care spring in their step.
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