A cunning ploy by Lucy. Unlike my 40th birthday, for which she consulted my Amazon wishlist, for my 41st, she consulted her own wishlist and gave me this because she rather wanted to rip it onto iTunes and hear it herself. I cannot complain at all, for I have done exactly the same with her, giving her albums by Cowboy Junkies and Dean & Britta with more than half an eye on my own selfish interests.
We went to see Aberfeldy last September, too, at Bush Hall. Riley Briggs was wearing the same Alan Wicker safari suit in which he is pictured on the back of the album.
It was a good show and it's a good album — though we both agree that the songs are not quite up to the great standard of the first album. Whereas that one was recorded more or less 'live' with just one or two mics for the whole band, it sounds like they enjoyed getting rid of those strictures for this album: the close-up backing vocals and fab arrangements are brilliantly recorded.
Aberfeldy do tuneful pop like The Magic Numbers, but I think they're better. It's the kind of pop that used to appeal to pre-teens, but, in the absence of kiddie-targeted image and marketing, their audience seems to feature quite a lot of over-35s like us.
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