Man On The Sea – Spygenius (reviewed by Marcus Kittridge)

The 17 tracks offered here demonstrate an impressive and accomplished songwriting and performance gamut. There is considerable variety on show and a range of tempos and feels are explored to good effect.

Guitars and keys are the mainstay of this record and are pushed along with a competent vocal delivery.

There are short forays into psychedelia never veering too far from the underlying personal voice on show throughout the record. I’d like to have heard these detours become just a bit weirder or more experimental.

Overall the worlds of XTC, Barenaked Ladies, Kinks, REM and New Model Army collide here and this will please a lot of potential listeners.

There are no tracks that could be described as weak or filler, but personally I’d like to hear a tighter 8 to 10 track curation. That’s probably just me and my ’40 minutes of perfection’ obsession.

I’d probably like to hear a little more experimental bravery on a future recording to really hook me in and there’s plenty of room for more female backing additions.

I’m sure that their existing following will see this double album as a real treat.