Millie / Direct

Album review

More likely named after Patrick McCabe's gruesome cult novel than the British folk standard of the same title, Butcher Boy is the latest entry in the long line of ultra-sensitive Scottish pop mavens, this time led by a former dance club DJ named John Blain Hunt. His is not the Stuart Murdoch school of childlike twee pop fancy, however. There is one exception to this blanket statement, the exceedingly Belle & Sebastian-like debut single "Girls Make Me Sick," a catchy little '60s-derived tune built on a bouncy bass riff and a noisy old-school organ part. That uncharacteristic excursion aside, the largely acoustic "Profit in Your Poetry" is deeply reminiscent of the Blue Nile, the Scottish chamber pop trio of the '80s and '90s. Unexpected instruments like viola and cello are fundamentally important to the low-key but richly detailed arrangements, which keep Hunt's plain but expressive voice front and center throughout. (Indeed, large sections of "Fun" are basically a cappella.) There's a large segment of the Anglophile indie audience that will buy the album based on no more information than this, but there's enough of a sturdily melodic core to these songs to appeal to the more discriminating fan of the indie chamber pop style, as well.

© Stewart Mason /TiVo