Astronauts

While Stephen Duffy, the leader of The Lilac Time, has long expressed his dissatisfaction with the group’s fourth album, Astronauts still has plenty to recommend it; for some, such as myself, it’s a sleeper favourite in the folk-rock group’s history. If their previous album, & Love For All, was overproduced and a bit tricksy – one suspects, largely due to the intervention of producer Andy Partridge (of XTC) – the songs on Astronauts are presented largely free of fuss. Duffy’s always been a superior melodicist, and some of the songs on here are among his strongest moments: the wistful “Grey Skies & Work Things”; the portentous sadness of “Madresfield”; the tear-streaked wisdom of “The Whisper of Your Mind.” Dropped in the middle of Astronauts, though, is the Hypnotone-produced electronic pop song, “Dreaming”; in lesser hands, it’d be an anomaly or a mess, but Duffy’s knack for melody and mood shines through, and it’s a weirdly appropriate moment, given the album’s timing, set to land in the midst of Britain’s post-rave culture glow.