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As long time followers of Lupen’s career, the release of the ‘Matthew’s Magpie’ 7” a few weeks ago was a taster for fans of what was to come. I picked it up at my latest favourite record store, Rough Trade off Brick Lane, the tracks were the same sort of surreal mix of pop-folk-poetry that he excels at like ‘A Silver Boot For Sam’, the scary ‘Petals Fresh From Road Kill’, ‘Love80’ and ‘Halloween’.

His debut Accidents Occur While Sleeping was even too advanced for NME trend setting types. Tracks like ‘22 U And The SA-10 Sounds’ from the ‘Matthew’s Magpie’ 7” don’t make the album release as we’ll also get updates of those other oldies ‘Staghead And Monster’ and the one that got him all that NME attention in 2005, ‘Lucky Six’.

‘Staghead And Monster’, even with the addition of a brass band, the tune loses none of its scariness while ‘Summer Time’ is an odd mix of kazoo orchestra and The Eighties B-line Matchbox Disaster.

‘The Critic’ is another dark sided tune, this is the one with ‘Picking Petals Fresh From Road Kill’ line’ and ‘Splits ‘n’ Differences’ — it isn’t a bungle of laughs either but the horn section jollies it along in parts.

Lupen is definitely out there on his own. Other ‘outsiders’ like Lightspeed Champion (aka Dev Haynes) and Patrick Wolf are mainstream by comparison. You need a ‘Lucky 6’ to cope with this so give the dice another roll and take a chance on getting this album.

Reviewed: Lupen Crook & The Murderbirds — Iscariot The Ladder (Tap’n’Tin) Cat. No. Release date: February 2008

Tracklisting:
1 Cackle And The Crown (2:39)
2 The Number Of Frames (3:38)
3 Matthew’s Magpie (2:25)
4 Staghead And Monster (3:23)
5 Summer Time (2:09)
6 Sympathy, Sunshine And The Catatonic Kiss… Goodbye (1:52)
7 Young Love (2:15)
8 The Critic (3:54)
9 Splits ‘N’ Differences (2:41)
10 Lucky Six (3:23)

Links:
www.lupencrook.co.uk
www.myspace.com/lupencrook
www.nme.com — NME put his ‘Lucky 6’ at 49 in the 2005 the tracks of the year
www.roughtrade.com Ladbroke Grove and turn left into Westbourne Park Road, turn right on Portobello Road, Talbot Road is the first road on the left — Brick Lane Store is next to the Big Chill Bar