Nite Songs

  And as promised, following on from the catch-up earlier today, here's the review of Matt Berry's new album. Although there's only been an eight month gap between Phantom Birds  and The Blue Elephant , the two couldn't be more different - while the former was a quite lovely collection of acoustic led torch songs, this album sees Berry going for a more '60s style psychedelic garage rock sound with instrumental interludes and all manner of instruments being chucked into the mix. Berry is on good form again here - the Doorsy Alone  and Summer Sun  which harks back to Ogden's Nut Gone Flake  era Small Faces. There's definitely a comparison to be made here with Chris Catalyst's excellent Life Is Often Brilliant  album from a few years ago in that it's the sound of a talented musician throwing everything into the pot and coming up with a deceptively addictive brew. There's a fair share of curveballs as well - just when you think you've got this pe...

  And so Matt Berry joins King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and Beans on Toast in that elite club of artists who've had two albums reviewed on Nite Songs in the same day. We'll be dealing with his new album The Blue Elephant  later today but first, we're going to do a quick bit of catching up with Phantom Birds  which saw the light of day late last year. Of course, most people know Berry from his comedy acting work with the likes of The Mighty Boosh , Snuff Box , Garth Marenghi's Darkplace ,  The IT Crowd , Toast , House Of Fools  and most recently the excellent What We Do In The Shadows  TV series. What some people may not know is that the guy is also an accomplished musician with this being no less than his sixth album. The main surprise is that it's a genuinely lovely and heartfelt collection of songs. The obvious touchstone here is Bob Dylan but I can also hear a connection to the aching torch songs of more contemporary artists like Tensheds. For the...