Soft Hearted Scientists - Golden Omens

Modern life is weird! Prolific Cardiff collective's 7^th long player!

It's been a busy few months for me and I've not always been able to post here as often as I would have liked. One release I definitely didn't want to let slip through the net is the latest opus from Soft Hearted Scientists. Hot on the heels of their recently reissued debut Uncanny Tales From The Everyday Undergrowth comes Golden Omens, their latest album of new material, this time on a double CD. Split into 4 parts, it's a song cycle that once again helps us see the world with fresh eyes. This is a band with a seemingly bottomless well of inspiration from which they conjure up tunes to delight and entertain us.

There's a Robyn Hitchcock lyric that goes something like “a sideways glance in a full on world”. I may have that slightly wrong but it sums up what Soft Hearted Scientists are all about. Their songs are rooted in the ordinary and everyday but make you see the world anew, opening your eyes to the inherent weirdness and absurdity that surrounds us when we step back and examine what's going on around us. Odd juxtapositions and associations abound.

Not only that but musically they continue to come up with the goods. Gentle pastoral folksiness one minute, into soundscapes and Barrett-esque whimsy the next. As hinted at on the album sleeve, Soft Hearted Scientists are the musically equivalent of jellyfish, fascinatingly odd and funny, they swim beneath the surface, are endurable and ever present, and might just sting you. Encounter them and life is never quite the same again. Dive in and swim with them!

Click here for Soft Hearted Scientists' website.