Rarely can a name as bad as 'It's Jo and Danny' have been accompanied by such freewheelingly fabulous music.
The title of the record is a curveball as well. Because while 'Lank Haired Girl To Bearded Boy' may potentially stink of twee, cloying compassion and heartfelt angst, the reality is very different.
Sure they've got the love. But fire is here in abundance as well.
Jo Bartlett and Danny Hagan, are, it would seem, a doe-eyed but bleary couple, fresh from a lysergic Woodstock experience, setting out to sprinkle their aural love potion from atop a big fluffy cloud. Or something.
Recorded in eight days, primarily by the husband and wife team, this album is a fantastic revelation, resplendent in glorious acoustic melodic surges, angelic vocals and a ramshackle, experimental conscience that incorporates analogue keyboards, loose dance patterns and fantastic horn breaks.
Opener 'Solar Plexus' is an instrumental implosion, mutating from an extended acoustic folk strum, only to be kicked-in by a squall of feedback and ballistic electric guitars, ricocheting FX and rumbustious percussion.
The rest of the album is more restrained, but no less brilliant: Jo's hymnal, atmospheric vocals of 'Hippy Thinking', reclining in gorgeous One Dove organ swirls, the folk/horn/horse racing instrumental threesome that is 'Arkle' and the 'music makes the world go round' refrain of 'Pilgrim's Prayer'
A folk pop angle weighs heavy as do Belle and Sebastian comparisons, which is certainly no bad thing.
The fey, precious strumming of 'Repentant Song' is a clear example, as a touching but frustrated tale of broken hearts unfolds - 'I can't forget it, every moment I spent, I spent with you'.
Another highlight is 'Love Expression', which grows almost organically from a vague dance-based rhythm, loose tambourine and even more succulent vocals. Taking in cello's, bongos. and best of all siren trumpets, the eventual change in tempo strikes you down effortlessly.
The biggest disappointment must be that Jo and Danny now – apparently - plan to move to a barn in the mountains to raise their kid. Still this thirty-five minutes is as big a musical achievement as many bands make in a career.
'Lank Haired Girl To Bearded Boy' is like eating a sugar-coated strawberry.
