The good thing with the mp3-player on shuffle is that you might find yourself thinking ‘hey! nice song!’ to realise that it’s from an album you were meant to write something about. In this case, the song was Chinatown from Watoo Watoo’s latest album La Fuite. The album contains good music to listen to during summer evenings, while reading a book for example. (Or while writing a review on the laptop and wondering why you’re not just reading a book.) Actually, Chinatown is the only song with English lyrics, all the other ones are sung in French. It’s only the girl singing, too. I thought Michael used to sing on previous albums, but they’re all in a box, far away from home, and even further away from the tiny room I am typing this from… Anyway. It’s a really good album and I am entitled to say that, because I’ve been listening to it a lot. It sounds like Stereolab playing Gainsbourg songs on a Sunday afternoon. But I’m only saying that because this is supposed to be a review a I think it needs a sounds like-quote.

Oh, and the label is called Letterbox, who are from Northern England and who happen to have released the debut album by California Snow Story as well. Human Resources-wise, the band is the missing link between Camera Obscura and The Hermit Crabs, but music-wise they’re a bit more quiet, singer songwriter-ish than both bands. But it’s not like their sound is miles away from those bands either. I really liked their debut EP, released on Shelflife back in 2002, and I had fallen in love with their mp3-single Suddenly Everything Happens too, that has been available on the label’s website for a long time. It’s still my favourite song of the album, which is called Close To The Ocean, but that might be just because I tend to stick to what I know already. After all, many other songs have charming boy-girl vocals too and it’s still one of my favourite album of the past six months. And they’re definitely the best band known as CSS.

Interview with Watoo Watoo here. Filles Sourires approval here. California Snow Story interview here. The Rain Fell Down approval here.