The new album from Armstrong is one of the best things you're going to hear all summer. Whatever points of comparison you wanna reach for -- and believe me, there are many -- is appropriate and right on the money. Prefab Sprout? Yep. Aztec Camera? Sure. Orange Juice? Okay. Deacon Blue? Oh yeah, that too. Under Blue Skies, a joint release from County Mile Records and The Beautiful Music, is superb, the sort of thing that hits all the pleasure-points in the brain of any fan of chamber pop. Thanks to these labels for coming together to rescue and reissue this previously hard-to-find limited release.
"Love Hate Passion and War" and "Crazy World" are wildly catchy, tunes that echo anything Roddy Frame composed in the mid-Eighties, while "Sorry About Lately" is like some blessed mix of the compositions of those Velvet Crush guys and Noel Gallagher. Elsewhere, "September Skies" nods in the direction of The Go-Betweens, while the beautiful "Get Through This", like a few of the cuts here, serves up a hint of Jimmy Webb stuff with the Britpop. Armstrong is Julian Pitt and he's Welsh, actually, even though his melodies at times, like on "The Things That Pass You By" and others, mimic those of Scottish masters Teenage Fanclub.
Under Blue Skies has been expanded in this edition with eight demos, including the rough "The World I Created", a cut that feels like something BMX Bandits could have offered up at some point. So much of this collection of songs works so spectacularly that a listener who's new to this is sort of knocked back on the heels at the idea that this guy has been making music like this for some time. I mean, before I'd even got to track 6, I was wondering why this guy wasn't as well known as Edwyn Collins and Roddy Frame. Every single song is good here, it's that simple, with even the eight demos being at least as melodic as the album tracks. The overall effect of Under Blue Skies is like getting Two Wheels Good (AKA Steve McQueen) and Protest Songs all at once on one record.
Under Blue Skies is out now via County Mile Records and The Beautiful Music.
More details via the Facebook page for The Beautiful Music.
[Photo: Julian Pitt, Armstrong Twitter page]