When does "charmingly ramshackle" become "half-finished"? The lines are blurred on the third album by Rory Grubb, although this collection by the Dubliner teeters precariously on the border of the latter category.
Perhaps that's down to Grubb's change of musical direction, swapping guitar for a palette of toy and key-based instruments that dominate most tracks. When it works, there is a roughshod charm to the lo-fi experimental pop of A Stream So Fickle and the sombre, Tears for Fears-style Happy Christmas.
When it doesn't, Childlike You and Step Into the Weather sound unwittingly disoriented, rambling and ill-conceived, embellished by Grubb's monotone vocals. The intention was presumably lighthearted whimsy, but instead it sounds like there's unfinished business.
