Sort Of

Their first album, and one of two recorded at the Wümme schoolhouse that had been commandeered by Krautrock group Faust. It’s still a slight puzzle as to how this music really came about, but for a few, mercurial years, Slapp Happy made pop music that didn’t quite cleave to any clear logic. It’s not intellectual, though it is intelligent; it’s melodically rich, but the tunes move in unexpected ways; the lyrics are often unsolvable riddles. The members of Faust join the core Slapp Happy trio here, their lumpen experimentalism perfectly suited to Slapp Happy’s flights of fancy. “Blue Flower” might be the most lasting song here, thanks to covers by Mazzy Star and Pale Saints, but “Small Hands Of Stone” and “Little Girl’s World” point in yet more interesting directions.