Maybe it's just me, maybe the few occasions on which i've stumbled upon a set by Welsh anti-folkster Euros Childs have all been a bizarre set of flukes, but I was always of the opinion that he was a man with a fair whack of humour about him. Not humour in an obvious, Tenacious D kind of way, but a knowing sarcasm that made his songs equally as hilarious as they were sonically interesting. So on first listen to this, his fourth studio album and his first to not be recorded live, the surprise element was pretty high; devoid of his usual oddball witticisms and, for the most part, any lightheartedness, it's fair to say that his cheer has, indeed, gone.This isn't to say that 'Cheer Gone' is a bad album per se- far from it, it just seems to lack that extra little sparkle that made Euros Childs stand out from the other (and, let's face it, there's a fair few) male acoustic types. The general spectrum of the album lies somewhere inbetween Edwyn Collins and Badly Drawn Boy- sometimes off-kilter enough to prove memorable (Nineteen Fifties, Farm Hand Murder) but often a little too similar to really stand out (Always Thinking Of Her, Saving Up To Get Married).The curveball, however, comes in the form of 'O Ein Dear'- sung entirely in Welsh and sounding like a cross between Sgt. Pepper Indian wig-out 'Within You, Without You' and the Velvet's 'All Tomorrow's Parties', it shows that Euros Childs is not entirely ready to sacrifice his outsider status just yet. There's also album closer, 'Sing Song Song', which harks back to previous days with it's country twang and twee lyricisms-a novelty ditty, yes, but one that goes a fair way to ensuring that the album as a whole doesn't go down the ill-fated path to the generic.All in all 'Cheer Gone' is an album best listened to in bits; there are some genuinely exciting tracks to be found, but when played through in full these can get a little lost within the fillers. Here's to hoping that the cheer returns for album five.
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