The new album from The Apartments strikes that rare note of hopeful mournfulness that nearly everything from this band has ever hit. In and Out of The Light, out today via Talitres, is full of beautiful music, and it's the rarest sort of release that one cherishes in a weird, warm way.
Peter Milton Walsh was briefly in The Go-Betweens and in "Where You Used to Be" a listener can hear a faint trace of the sort of smart pop that both McLennan and Forster penned at one time, even as "Pocketful of Sunshine" seems a unique variation of the same thing, sad and lovely at the same time. Elsewhere, "Butterfly Kiss" reminded me a bit of The Blue Nile, with Walsh sounding a little like Paul Buchanan circa Hats here on this one, while "Write Your Way Out of This Town" seems cut from the same cloth that powered lots of the best East River Pipe releases on this side of the ocean.
Walsh is a pioneer of sorts, a writer who sounds almost like no one else operating in the pop world, even if some of this sounds like those other acts I mentioned. He brings a seriousness and sensitivity to his work that precious few other songwriters possess, and he can make music that really does touch the soul and put a listener into a place of hushed vulnerability. I place this guy's material on a pedestal in a way, and In and Out of the Light is, like earlier releases, up there with Walsh's other offerings.
In and Out of The Light is out today via Talitres.
More details on The Apartments via the official website.
[Photo: Bleddyn Butcher]