He may be new to these shores but Thomas Walsh is a well-heeled Brit-rock loyalist back home. Having absorbed the lessons of such prototypical English standard bearers as the Beatles, ELO and XTC, Walsh has become a one man revivalist, carrying on those Anglophile traditions via Pugwash, a loose conglomerate of fellow travelers that has included at times Andy Partridge and Dave Gregory of the aforementioned XTC, Michael Penn and Jason Faulkner, as well as members of the Divine Comedy and the Frames. In fact, Walsh’s XTC connections go even deeper, thanks to a record contract with Partidge’s Ape House label.
Given these high-profile connections, its somewhat surprising that Pugwash has waited so long to make its official debut in the U.S. Happily then, the band makes up for lost time with the appropriately titled Giddy, a compilation of tracks from the group’s previous albums as well as a couple of entries from Eleven Modern Antiquities, Pugwash’s most recent release in the U.K. that’s scheduled for a full U.S. unveiling in 2010
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For the time being however, Giddy lives up to its name, given a baker’s dozen jubilant and effusive pop songs, replete with strings, synths, melotron, lush harmonies and the sound of psychedelia in full regalia. Those who recall the haylcon days of ‘60s prog rock will experience something of a flashback, with tunes like “Apples,” “Song For You” and “Sunrise Sunset” conjuring up the possibilities of John Lennon at the helm of the Beach Boys or Roy Wood taking his unhinged imagination several steps further. Granted, any song titled “It’s Nice to Be Nice” runs the risk of being a bit cloying, but in Pugwash’s capable environs, nice is simply an understatement.
--Lee Zimmerman [September 28, 2009]
