Cheer Gone is the fourth solo album from the prolific former Gorky’s Zycotic Mynci stalwart Euros Childs. Gorky’s formed in 1991, spearheading a strain of Welsh psychedelic folk of which Childs is now a veteran, albeit a young one, still in his early thirties.

Childs belongs to the Wichita Recordings family, in good company amongst Conor Oberst, Los Campesinos! and Those Dancing Days. Recorded over six days in Nashville Tennessee, this album has an unpolished, country quality. An Americana head maybe, but its heart belongs to the Welsh valleys. Like the Super Furries, Gorky’s and subsequently Euros Childs often released tracks in Welsh, and like Gruff Rhys, Childs’ Welsh accent can be clearly heard when he sings.

The album has a sleepy, nonchalant tone, like a 32 minute lullaby in which the occasional dark turn in the lyrics is blunted by Childs’ gentle voice. Summer Days is the aural equivalent of a riverside doze in the sunshine under a thick, muggy blanket of air. Her Ways is the most energetic and upbeat offering on the album, with jangley guitars and plenty of sing-a-long potential. Always Thinking Of Her is just Childs with a simple piano accompaniment, like eavesdropping on a kid’s piano lesson. It makes for a welcome interlude between the more forlorn tracks, but would not be sustainable for an entire album. Although, if it’s good enough for PJ Harvey…

The title Cheer Gone perhaps alludes to the second mood evident on this slightly schizophrenic album. My Love is Gone, as the title suggests, is a solemn tale of pining told by a banjo in a minor key. But gloom never prevails for long and dark is immediately followed by light. So Farm Hand Murder, a disturbing first person account of the moments preceding a murder, is juxtaposed with the impossibly sweet Saving Up To Get Married. The funereal organ chords of Medicine Head are followed by frivolous hillbilly hoedown track Sing Song Song.

Cheer Gone is a Jekyll and Hyde record, a peculiar blend of gentle whimsy and sombre despair. In less capable or inexperienced hands this would result in an album lacking cohesion, but Euros Childs has expertly constructed a beautiful album of light and shade.

Release date: 27/10/08
Artist website: www.myspace.com/euroschilds
Label: Wichita Recordings

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