First (and Last)

That's the the first of the season, and probably the last off the allotment. I suppose there might be another little one to be found under the ever-encroaching undergrowth before we take our leave at the end of the month but we'll have to see...(Next year we'll have to jam a few in at the back of the garden for Halloween!)

I've been enjoying the new album, 'Ghosts We Must Carry', by the State Broadcasters, from Glasgow, for the last few days, particularly the song 'Kittiwake' (I couldn't find a u-toob video for it, but you can download it for free from their bandcamp page if you're interested.) There's something rather endearing (if not altogether rock 'n' roll) about a song where the breakup of a relationship is lamented in terms of missing out on all those nice long walks in the hills with a flask of tea you'll no longer be able to engage in together. The whole album is really good, though: indie-based but much less Belle and Sebastian than you might imagine, the strings and the measured, slightly stately arrangements give it a bit of a folkishly intimate chamber-pop feel that's closer, if anything, to Butcher Boy, or even King Creosote and Jon Hopkins' Mercury-nominated 'Diamond Mine' album from last year. There's a really good cover of Billy Bragg's 'The Only One' as well (though you might, like me, know it as 'the "victim of geography" song'...)