Euros Childs - 'Chops' (Wichita) Released 13/02/06

With a sound like the whisper of a lost soul, opener 'Billy The Seagull' doesn’t so much grab your attention but rather makes you think "did I really ****ing hear that?" and as you slip into “Donkey Island” with very cleverly crafted melodic mixtures providing counter points to each other and an almost French tilt in the vocals, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s some kind of weird kids party.

Border hopping into a music parallel 'Dawnsio Dros Y Mor's got a strong Spanish feel to the beat, backed by flamenco style clapping, so you’d think that the Welsh vocals would suit the song about as well as spandex on a sumo wrestler, but strangely enough it does! And all those purists out there will be the only ones who understand “Ship Ship Way” as for the rest of us it just sounds like  junk yard challenge for music. “Costa Rita” with silky movements in both vocals and music, this is a gem for one of those smoothly 'smooch me’ moments. ‘Stella is a pygmy’ is too good and too short and in too many pieces and ‘My Country Girl’ does nothing more than provide an interlude of country and western. ‘Circus Time’ in comparison is one of those perfectly blended cocktails of keyboard, strings and vocals that will try at the ears and hearts of any Pink Floyd fan but wait for “Surf Rage”- a bad Euro Trash sounding number to make grey days darker! And what the hell is “First Time I Saw You” doing here?! (Repetitive and simply awful- a plain piano tune set to a droning background of musical flatulence).

Intelligent, introspective. Boring yet sublime are all words you could used to describe 'Chops'. Probably ‘frustrating’ is the best - it’s like a box of quality chocolates but with too many coffee flavoured ones.