THE SEA NYMPHS

Tim Smith, Sarah Smith and William D. Drake take some time off the Cardiacs here to play some music that is in one sense quite different and in another sense quite similar to the mothership. The songs on this one are rather calm and slow and keyboard oriented, which is quite different from what we know of the Cardiacs. There is little guitar and hardly any drums. On the other hand there are some typically twisted Cardiacs melodies, surprises and histrionic craziness. One of the unexpected influences is church songs.

The album is now again available from the Alphabet Business Concern, so I took the opportunity to get this work of the three musicians that to me seem central in at least the 80s incarnation of the Cardiacs. As well as of the Cardiacs I consider myself a fan of William D. Drake's solo work, so I had high expectations for this one.

Now it is undeniably original and unique, but unfortunately to me it doesn't work that well. I think that they somehow got the sound wrong here. As other Cardiacs work this has quite strong high frequencies, particularly in Tim's singing and some of the keyboards. This doesn't really play to the strengths of the compositions, which have rather different qualities than Cardiac-like sharpness. The reverb was clearly overdone, which doesn't help. Tim's voice isn't so good for this kind of song, but he does most singing. Also, his voice is rather high and a bit thin and I don't think these features should emphasised even more in the mix. William's voice is not yet as confident as in later work. The vocal highlights come from Sarah whose optimistic naive voice is irresistible (and much too seldom heard in the Cardiacs). Also a proper drummer could have improved this; there is something to say for trash esthetics, but still I'd have appreciated some swing here; where percussion appears it's pretty static.

On the positive side, there is a number of memorable melodies and some great keyboard parts particularly on the piano (Drake does great things also on other keys but the dubious choice of sounds affects the pleasure somewhat; although perhaps it's fitting for Sea Nymphs that some of this sounds like under water). Although one finds the odd uninspired one out of the 19 songs here, overall the compositions are very worthwhile and there is still a lot to appreciate here, although I'd have wished the execution and the sound to be better. So overall it's fairly good and very special, but still not more than 3 stars for its flaws.