A LITTLE MAN AND A HOUSE AND THE WHOLE WORLD WINDOW

I must admit I had a pretty big smile on my face as I read in the liner notes "Thank you to Martin Orford for the loan of his beautiful mellotron." Yes the former IQ keyboardist gets mentioned in the liner notes of one of CARDIACS most treasured albums. There's a lot of guests on this one as well adding brass, strings and voices. Yes this is a CARDIACS album that most fans would rank in their top three. Speaking of top three, it was fairly easy for me to pick my three favourite songs from this album as they are the songs that really spoke to me in one way or another.

"A Little Man And A House" opens with strings and horns not sounding very CARDIACS-like until almost spoken vocals arrive after a minute. We keep getting teased on this one that it's going to breakout but it doesn't as they reel it back in each time. Horns are back late in this interesting opener. "In A City Lining" is a top three track for me. A catchy beat with atmosphere and determined vocals. It turns circus-like around 2 minutes. Organ 4 minutes in then it slows down but at the same time becomes more powerful then the tempo speeds up. Lots of sax here as well. "I'm Eating In Bed" is a title that makes me smile and we can hear samples of that. So catchy. A variety of keyboards around 3 minutes. "Is This The Life" is another top three tune. It brings back the eighties for me and that guitar melody throughout is so appealing. And check it out when he starts to light it up before 3 minutes as the guitar goes on and on. So good! I like the synth/ drum section that follows as well. "Interlude" is less than a minute of solemn horns with keyboards arriving late.

"Dive" is hyper to say the least. A fast- paced Punk inspired track. "The Icing On The World" has lots of tempo changes and this urgent beat. Horns blast as vocals dominate. "The Breakfast Line" like "I'm Eating In Bed" features samples that you would expect from the title. Lots of tempo changes early on, it's all over the place, very entertaining. Strings only before 3 minutes then it turns fuller to the end. Nice. "Victory Egg" is catchy with vocals, drums and organ standing out early before strings and horns join in. "R.E.S." is catchy and uptempo but the highlight is the guitar solo after 3 minutes. "The Whole World Window" is my final top three and man this hits me emotionally. He almost speaks the lyrics early on then it all turns fuller including the vocals around 1 1/2 minutes. So good! He almost sounds like Peter Hammill here. I like how that theme is repeated, it's so moving and majestic. Some beautiful sax in this one as well. Tim starts yelling for some time during this majestic soundscape. Nice contrast.

A must if your going to check out the world that is the CARDIACS.