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Back in the late 80s Dubliners Eamonn Davis and Derrick Dalton were in a band called Hey Paulette that put out a handful of self-released records and recorded a Peel Session. They've kicked around in other bands for a while and in 2004 they got together with drummer/singer Dez Foley to form Crumb. Crumb sounds like a band that has had time to hone its skills; this debut disc is comprised of 10 crisp, perfectly-crafted guitar-pop songs delivered with a deft touch, obvious pleasure, and lack of pretense. Crumb's roots in the 80s are immediately apparent in the "So. Central Rain"-style 12-string jangle of this disc's opening track, "Lights of the City," and the R.E.M. influence can be heard elsewhere, including on the chorus to the following track, the excellent "Fecky the Ninth." In their post-Hey Paulette days it seems the boys have aligned themselves with modern power-poppers like Teenage Fanclub or short-lived Shinkansen Records act Monograph, with songs like "Bad Timing" and "My Back Yard" demonstrating this most clearly. Dalton and Foley trade off lead vocal duties and combine for some great harmonies as well. Whichever one sings "Marwood" sounds an awful lot like a Reid brother or Adam Franklin on that song. Dalton wields 6- and 12-string Rickenbackers like a master, and he has a great distorted jangly tone on most of the songs. "Bad Timing" features some particularly nice work on that instrument, and he coaxes some nice feedback on "Book of Misunderstanding" as well. Davis's bass work is bouncy and melodic in the right places. While the songs are fairly uptempo, there's a slightly melancholy quality to many of them, a hint of wistfulness to give the sparkle some emotional weight. They do pull a bit of a cliché move by closing out the album with an acoustic ballad, but that's entirely forgivable on an album full of perfect songs. Classic pop songwriting like this will never go out of style.
Incidentally, Hey Paulette's brief discography is set to be compiled on a single disc by a label in Germany in the near future, and if it's near as good as this then it'll be well worth tracking down too. (mike.05.06)
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