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Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: Tell Balgeary, Balgury Is Dead
[Lookout!]

This nine-track EP (if it can still be called an EP at that length) is sort of a stop-gap release between Leos phenomenal Hearts of Oak album and his next release.  It features mostly solo songs (just Ted and an electric guitar) in addition to the title track, taken from Hearts of Oak. 

The solo songs begin with The High Party, a song from Hearts.  As a highlight of that album, the song is also a welcome find on this EP.  Oddly enough, the solo guitar version seems less manic than the full-band take from Hearts of Oak; his punk rock, Joe Jackson-like vocals remain, but the song sounds more solid.  This is pretty constant throughout the record at times the songs sound assured, but theres always an undercurrent of messing about in the studio, as if the takes arent being taken too seriously. 

The EP also includes three covers.  Dirty Old Town is a song originally written by Ewan McColl (but made popular by the Pogues), and it calls to mind Leos childhood in New Jersey.  Next up is a song by the Jam, Ghosts, and Ted infuses the song with an excitement thats hard to ignore.  After the palette-whetting (decaying artifact), the last cover is a hesitant version of Six Months in a Leaky Boat, a Split Enz song.  Sounding both confident and awkward at the same time, Leo turns in a stripped-down take on this classic and casts the song in a new light, even as it deals with themes present in his original songs. 

The last song on the record is another original, Loyal to my Sorrowful Country.  A protest song in the classic sense, it features the lines No more shall I be loyal to my sorrowful country/In the days when we were young, we were free, we were free/With each new day thats begun, we cant be, we wont be. These lines sum the song up better than I could.  Its not necessarily a happy ending, but it is a fitting one in todays climate. 

This album can be purchased at Amazon, Insound, and CD Universe

Ted Leo Official Website

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