Flipron - 'Fancy Blues and Rustique Novelties' (Tiny Dog) Released 01/08/04

Flipron’s debut album is one of those records that you instinctively want to hate. The music is a garish mish-mash of kitsch and exotica whilst the songwriting is desperate to appear witty and literate, and Jesse Budd’s voice is at points so excruciatingly mannered that he comes across like a character from The League of Gentlemen.

Strange to find, then, that despite my reservations, by the fourth track, the giddy Hawaiian instrumental 'Skeltons on Holiday' (on which drummer Mike Chitty is credited as playing “actual bones”) I found I was really enjoying it. Not long ago there would have been little room on the British music scene for a band like Flipron. Their music has a little too much high camp and tongue-in-cheek showbiz about it to have fit in amongst the dour new new-wavers down the death disco.

But with the likes of The Zutons and The Bees coming to the fore in recent months, suddenly it seems less controversial for a band touting French café songs about forbidden casinos and killer automobiles to be taken seriously. How seriously Flipron want to be taken is another question. Their proficiency in a myriad styles ably demonstrates what talented musicians they are, and though their songs are largely facetious, and often a bit too clever for their own good, there are many delightful musical moments. A guilty pleasure.