All 5 tracks are called "Albatross", numbered I to V like emperors. There are softly bowed strings and gently strummed guitars and a spookiness that you find in still waterways, the ghosts of dragonflies and kingfishers and otters and overly curious children. That association might be due to the cover art and the video attached, but it works neatly. It's music to drown to in slow motion.
"Albatross III" is a whopper, sitting in the middle of the album for a whole twenty-five minutes - like an enormous seabird. Tony Hart's Gallery would have seemed a much more sombre place with this in the background. (Although the Fleetwood Mac tune is pretty huge as well.) Nothing happens so much, the music eddies and swirls like water do: the metaphor is almost inescapable. It glints and winks.
After the mammoth third track, the last two are almost Lou Barlow in length. IV has a boxier feel and clocks in at a punky 3:43, but still drools artfully and lazily. There are also gull noises and the sound of waves and children's chatter, liminal in the bottom of the mix. Titles would be a helpful handle to move this tracks around in, to get an idea of the intent behind them. But then I suppose the intent is not to show their intent.
V blisses out eventually. The album is full of it. Though I suppose the listener would need to be ready to let some of that bliss in to really enjoy it. Tonight I'm ready.
Also, what a great name for a band: Plinth.
Rating: Stay out of The Water, Kids
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