Ella Guru The First Album

Just before Christmas, I happened to find myself at an Ella Guru gig. Eight people shuffled on stage and played with as little volume as any band that size quite possibly could. Ever. Half of them didn't even bother to stand up, smiling behind their guitars and almost whispering the lyrics. Fantastic.

So half a year later, I find myself listening to them again and if the Psychedelic Furs made the Beautiful Chaos then this is the Beautiful Quiet. Hailing from Liverpool, a city not known for quiet, whispering types, Ella Guru have made an album that doesn't grab you by the lapels and force you to listen like London Calling but more one that tempts your ears to listen closer, closer still, until you can just out make out the words being sung.

So, what's to say? Ella Guru have players who offer not only pedal steel guitar, but the cornet and ukulele as well. Also, how many bands can claim to have numbers on bass and double bass? All this adds to the possibilities of the sound, which revolves around the talents on John Yates - frontman, guitarist and occasional harmonica blower. Rarely rising to the clearly audible but still distinctive enough to not be confused with, say, Neil Halstead (with whom he shares clear songwriting parallels). Lyrically, the titles generally offer a taste of the theme: I Got My Mojo Working, Augustus Speakers... though throwing in This Is My Rock and Roll and My Favourite Punk Tune could yet lure in unsuspecting punters expecting thrashed chords and bile.

'...I'm a pretty nice guy, I wouldn't want to fight at all / In fact I want peace all the time,' Yates goes on On A Mountain, and he sounds like he pretty much he means it, as if he's created this other world in his head where he can play his music to birds on the mountain top. Somewhat appropriately, All Things Must Pass by George Harrison is namechecked.

More surprisingly, Jimmy Carl Black - onetime drummer with the Mothers of Invention - appears to provide vocals towards the end of The First Album. Classically weathered American vocals from a true 'Been there/done that/etc' character, his strange little monologue rounds off everything somewhat wonderfully. Also, Yates surely could not help but beam with pride when Black noted that he reminded him of Frank Zappa 'but without the ego.'

In a time where Nick Drake is now suddenly fashionable again, Ella Guru may well have found their own. Is songwriting fashionable again? Fuck knows. Still, buy this album.