Albums of The Year # 37 This is the Kit - Off Off On

 From a few weeks back:

I wondered, when I started listening to this, earlier on in the day, whether I really fancied hearing another This Is The Kit album. Not that I don't like them, because I do, but you fairly much know what you're going to get with this bunch. Tuneful, thoughtful, reflective Folk music. Nowt to complain about. But there are plenty off purveyors of this kind of thing these days.

Of course, Off Off On, remarkably the band's sixth soon lulled me under its spell. They do their thing very, very well. For This Is The Kit, essentially Kate Stables and the musicians she works with, are masters of this particular art. It's a great knack they have, to be able to draw on such ancient traditions and make them poppy and immediate. The stuff you feel like dancing around to the kitchen to.

I'm not informed enough of the band's stuff to know where this stands in terms of their overall body of work. But if you're going to listen to one This Is The Kit record, it might as well be this one seeing as it's their latest and it's just great. It's immediate, it's warm, it's inventive. In turns it's upbeat, then laid back. Then it's something in between the two. It dances to the rhythm of its own drum. In short, I love it. Go on treat yourself. Proper Sunday morning record.