I think what I was picking up from listening to this was that the arrangements were straightforward enough to be considered predictable. There’s little immediately apparent to distinguish these players from any other jobbing session musician you might decide to rope in for the recording session.

There are one or two moments where someone does threaten to let loose, and you can almost imagine the band leader fixing them with a stare at that moment and wagging a finger, and the performance slips back into the mundane again.

These are a couple of great songs with well-wrought lyrics, which I feel are let down by listless (“oomph”-less?) arrangements and performances. This could be the reason it’s taken you so long to appreciate the inherent quality hidden in the songs, because there’s a dull patina of unstimulating familiarity to scrape away first.

I’m not suggesting they should “wig-out” and add any overdriven stylophone or wah-wah kazoo just for shits and giggles; going a bit easier on the the sustain pedal on the piano might have been a start.

In any case, more imaginative arrangements certainly might make it more immediate, but might take away from that slow burn intimacy which is so nice once you really get into the album.

You could define it as volume and compression during the recording, so that the finished mix has a degree of “oomph” while losing clarity and definition.

Or you could relate it to a more personal notion of “oomph” from the musicians at the arrangement stage; being brave and imaginitive, and having that certain get-up-and-go, so you have engaging and inventive plans for the songs before you set the tapes rolling.

I was going for the latter, but I could have been more clear.

Linda – Cocaine and Ashes and Sultana are probably my favourites, but then I always did prefer the sad songs.

There are moments when you wish they’d put a little more oomph into the arrangements – not go wild – but perhaps give the songs a little more room to breathe.

But maybe that’s missing the point, and that in another twentty listens – as you suggested Matthew – it will all drop into place.

Loving the retro look to that album cover too.

Euan – duly altered. Fucking hell. That’s what comes from trying to write posts during your lunch break and not reading them back to yourself properly. Thanks.