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Honey may taste sweet but there's a strange aftertaste from 'Stick in a Pot'

Some people are annoyingly prolific. By the time you, dear reader, have accessed the use of your limbs to crawl pathetically out of bed, like a disgusting sea creature re-birthing from the primordial ooze, some people have been awake for hours, finishing projects and making their first million on the international stock market. Most normal people who, for example, had the chance to jet off to Melbourne, Australia for a few months would lie on the beach for days on end, consuming their own weight in beer and shrimp before eventually sauntering around the city pretending to care about architecture. But not Piers Blewett (the man behind folk outfit, Stick in a Pot) oh no! He went away, and managed to record a five track EP. Now isn’t that a sting in the tale?

‘When the monsters arrive’, released 3rd of August on Sad Sentry Records, is a strange one to categorise. It is essentially folk, with its quiet acoustic numbers set to steady drumbeats, but there is also the unmistakable essence of pop scattered throughout. Everything seems less melancholic and self-deprecating than you might expect. Blewett sings about an eclectic mix of topics to boot, doing away with the usual need to veer in the direction of songs about the self. Tourists, aliens, clowns and prisoners are all characterised in ‘when the monsters arrive’ and this is a positive and more unique aspect of the EP as a whole.

Yet, there is something which doesn’t quite connect here. It may be the relationship with the instruments and Blewett’s voice. The latter is nowhere near as perfected as the other, and this is, unfortunately, a letdown. While all the songs in themselves are competent, it is track one ‘Splinter’ ,the only song which contains no vocal, which sounds the most polished of all the five. It may also be the length of the majority of the tracks, which seem far too short and often simply peeter out, which leave you feeling short changed.
Overall, Stick in a Pot has a good ability to write interesting songs but they feel lacking in determination. Often enjoyable, yet stunted by its length and its inability to provide an overall flow as a whole.