And the Horse You Rode In On

VINYL FORMAT. Boy meets girl. Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. Crushing breakup inevitably ensues. Boy drops out of life, retreats to family's farmhouse in Northern Wales. Boy - along with the rest of band - makes great record, triumphs over adversity.

Rock's bread and butter is romantic tragedy. The latest record from Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, ...and the Horse You Rode In On, takes all that, crushes it up, and emerges with something new, crisp, compelling and incredibly intelligent. Sure, they rock, but they also read.

The whole record echoes Britain's foremost purveyors of pity and poetry. Hints of Morrissey's literate lamentations, Jarvis Cocker's over-sexed swagger, and ballboy's broken-hearted exuberance rise and fall over the fourteen songs. From the record's opening line "I hope you catch syphilis and die," there's a portent of the beartbroken bitterness to come.