Yahoo! Music Review

Released on 19/03/07
Label: Pet Rock Records

It's good to have Gordon Anderson back. From the mid-'90s, the co-founder of the Beta Band, member of Fife's feted Fence Collective and the solo recording artist known as Lone Pigeon spent almost a decade in and out of psychiatric institutions, which seriously stymied his creative endeavours. Happily, Anderson is now stabilised and off medication and so has picked up his artistic life where he left off. Together with fellow Beta Band exiles John MacLean and Robin Jones, Anderson formed The Aliens, whose name is a neat pointer to their out-there blend of psychedelic pop, space jazz, Merseybeat, baggy and '70s country rock, while possibly (and more poignantly) underlining Anderson's outsider status.

Of their debut LP's title, the singer-songwriter and guitarist has said, "it was coined as a phrase that describes music in general, only a little understood, untouchable - a bit like this music", but there's nothing cold, confusing or chaotic about "Astronomy For Dogs". In fact, from gleeful, giddily gauche knees-up ("Happy") to unbearably poignant lament ("Honest Again"), these 11 warped tunes are hugely heartfelt, wonderfully warm and shot through with a genuinely touching humanity.

The Aliens open as they begin their live shows, with "Setting Sun", which suggests "All Along The Watchtower" played by The Beatles and The Byrds, while lathering on the Merseybeat organ. It sets the tone for the album's upbeat and perky first half, moving through the hammering piano of the Primal Scream-toned "Robot Man", the harmonica-decked, Byrds-like "Tomorrow" and "Rox", a homage to Happy Mondays and The Scream that cheekily revisits the latter's slovenly anthem of the same (differently spelled) name, while adding a dash of Eastern melodic promise.

The album's mood shifts dramatically with the sweetly mournful, strings-swollen epic "She Don't Love Me No More", which matches Ralph Vaughn Williams with "Honky Chateau"-era Elton John while being bluntly autobiographical ("I was ten long years in a mental asylum"). The delightful but near deranged "Glover" follows, suggesting a collective comprised of Dame Elton, Delia Derbyshire and The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, but the gorgeous, Moody Blues-tinted "Honest Again" is a sobering follow-up. "Happy" offers a quick upper before "Caravan", an epic closer of bruised and gently glowing beauty that calls to mind Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Tempting though it may be to view the album's happy/sad see-sawing as the unconscious expression of Anderson's bipolar depression, it's probably plain wrong. What is certain is "Astronomy For Dogs" is a magic-dusted delight and that Anderson is a wizard and a true star.

    by Sharon O'Connell