TREMBLING BLUE STARS Lips Taste Of Tears (Shinkasen/CD only) EVER SAT CRYING ALL NIGHT OUTSIDE THE Burger King where she said you smell and dumped you for him? Do you appreciate the comedy of Sean Hughes? Own a large collection of cardigans because they're 'comfy and stylish'? Answer 'yes' to any of the above and you are probably already familiar with the work of softius maximus Bob Wratten, ex-Field Mouse dribbler and now Hug Czar as singer of Trembling Blue Stars. You probably sleep with last year's debut album 'Her Handwriting' under your pillow and call it by a pet name. And you will be scared out of your mousy wits by 'Lips That Taste Of Tears'. Hey losers! KABOOM! The Softy Hiroshima has arrived! And Wratten pilots the cardy-pop Enola Gay to perfection. He lures in the unsuspecting wallflowers with a soppy title and the wispy, lispy piano meanderings of opener 'All I Never Said' then WALLOPS them in the face with proper rock tunes, great swathes of spooky Glasto-electro breakbeats and, on 'Made For Each Other', a chest-bursting orchestral chorus that makes Embrace sound like, well, the last Trembling Blue Stars album actually. The 70-odd minutes may be dotted with the odd Lightning Seeds pastiche, and Bob still sings like a neutered Neil Tennant, but even this can't detract from 'Lips...'' achievement. For this is the record that finally drags softy rock out of its bedroom, torches its safety blanket and kicks it into the big world of rock with the challenge to make something epic of itself. It returns in modest triumph. 8/10 Mark Beaumont Review courtesy of NME ------- And if you've got nothing better to do over lunch, try http://www.spe.sony.com/movies/spiceworld/quiz.html ... baby waltzer ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister@majordomo.net . We're all happy bunnies humming happy bunny tunes. Aren't we? -----------------------------------------------------------------------