Pugwash – Silverlake album review: Pleasant but monotonous

When Dublin singer-songwriter Thomas Walsh collaborates with the Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon as The Duckworth Lewis Method, their cricket-obsessed concept albums are the real-life equivalent of sharing fantastical quips with other dandies over cucumber sandwiches and Pimms, if you fancy hanging around cricket pitches and wearing all white.

As Pugwash, Walsh's seventh solo album Silverlake is quite nice and while it delivers summery melodies along with some very tidy production, it lacks the witty punch of DLM and the niceness consumes the album, making it mildly monotonous. What Are You Like, an upbeat break-up song, is a highlight but when he sings that he can't wait to tell the world how badly his ex treated him, the best dig he can come up with is "What are ya like anyway?", like a playful shopkeep scolding a useless delivery boy.

Everyone Knows That You're Mine and Easier Said Than Done bounce along but with Silverlake, perhaps Walsh needed another person to bounce ideas off in order to coax out the witticisms, the weirdness and the bite needed to lift the tracks from pleasant to memorable. pugwash.ie