The Night Café from Liverpool puts down a tightly played indie album with their bulky debut 0151. The dividing line between mainstream and artsy is thin, but that is exactly what makes this 18-track debut so wonderful. It doesn't get flat, but it doesn't get too difficult either. The band switches from songs with catchy choruses and swinging melodies to songs with shoegaze influences just as easily.
The subjects are not always light-footed either, but are packaged in dreamy songs so that the dark subjects also glide by surprisingly pleasantly. It must be said that the album is very long, but that is cleverly resolved by the abstract interludes that are so at odds with the rest of the songs that they actually refresh the listener's attention. (JvQ)more