Butcher Boy - The Eighteenth Emergency

  by Russell Ferguson

published: 5 / 9 / 2007

Label: How Does It Feel to Be Loved
Format: CDS

intro

Understated new EP from Glasgow-based indie group, the Butcher Boy

The Butcher Boy is the band of John Blain Hunt, a Glaswegian indie scenester who these days digs the café scene. This EP was recorded in John’s Glasgow flat a few months after the band first played it live on an American college radio station WMBR. I would never call this lounge or elevator music. It’s lively and has more pace, depth and colour. It somehow has an undercurrent of energy but that struggles to come through at times. It’s not so much laid back as just quiet in the same sense that Lloyd Cole is quiet. This four song EP starts with the stripped down title track.A love song, it feature a piano and a cello which isn’t too unpleasant. At times it tries to be the Smiths' 'Asleep' but it lacks shine and keeps drifting to nowhere in particular. By contrast 'There Is No One Who Can Tell You where You’ve Been’ is much quicker and has a Spanish, almost spaghetti western feel to it all. It is far stronger than the title track. This is worth a listen but you’ve to keep with it. It’s not instant and it does not pull you out of your chair, but at the same time it far from offends your ears.

Track Listing:-