Album Review: Micko And The Mellotronics – ½ Dove – ½ Pigeon

There’s a particularly English strain of observational song-writing that is wry and off-kilter, an antidote to the sugary sweet love song and the deliberately anodyne. But no less affecting, because like the best love songs, this genre (if that is what it is) comes directly from the core of the writer. Masters of the canon include Ray Davies, Andy Partridge, Jarvis Cocker … but you can find examples in all eras of British music back to the music hall, through George Formby‘s risqué ditties about street corners and lecherous window cleaners and the The Bonzo Dog Doodah Band‘s catalogue of wilful oddness.

Micko Westmoreland stands proud among his peers in this regard. ½ Dove – ½ Pigeon is an album of songs penned by someone standing at society’s kitchen window, looking out. His lyrics are about minutiae and specific feelings and memories, not grand and sweeping emotions and gestures. Lyrically, this is chock full of references and touchpoints – Micko is clearly a renaissance man who has both a wide cultural outlook and a forensic ability to get to the essence of feelings and memories.

To soundtrack this vision, Micko has assembled a prestigious musical ensemble. With the album initially underway as a three-piece (Micko plus drummer Nick Mackay and Vicky Carroll on bass), it was the addition of guitarist Jon Klein (Siouxsie & the Banshees/Specimen) that provided the special sauce that makes this eclectic album such a special one. Notable other cast members include The Specials’ Horace Panter and the late and great Neil Innes. What results is a vivid and diverse musical journey that flits from the Threepenny Opera (The Fear) to the grandiose Banshee-esque Halcyon Days. Throughout, Micko‘s flat Yorkshire vocal punctures any pomposity and makes this an oddly intimate and affecting listen.

A ‘now’ album that reeks of nostalgia and that blends rock shapes with determinedly off-kilter noise and confusion. Recommended.

½ Dove – ½ Pigeon is out now via Landline Records.