The Blue Eyed Shark Experiment
‘The Fluffer’
(Sidewalk 7)

Ignore the silly moniker – his eyes are blue, his friends used to call him ‘shark’ and his music is the ‘experiment’ – and the dreadful album title, and, actually, what you’re left with are eleven intriguing songs. It begins with the title track – a beguiling Beirut-style instrumental, before moving into the grandiose melancholy pop of ‘Goodbye My Little Friend’. The zenith of the album is the plaintive, piano-led ‘Sleep Next To Me’, a gorgeous, tinkling, sad lullaby, but there are too many ideas competing for space here. This means, while ‘Veneration’’s catchy electronica works brilliantly, the dancefloor beats of ‘Jetplane’ fall flat and ‘Tapdance’ is too kitsch for its own good. A curate’s egg, for sure, but one worth cracking open.

Mischa Pearlman