The fact sheet that came with this album says that, among other things, this band employs "the little-mined vein of 1980's production/arrangement style a la the Church (when they were brilliant)." If you're the type of person who finds something admirable in that—and let's be frank about what's admirable here: it's the acknowledgment that the Church went from being brilliant to sucking beyond belief—then you should probably troop down to your local online retailer and order this album. It turns out to be a very apt description, even if nothing quite attains the glory of "Under the Milky Way". And I should point out that this description should not be taken to mean that Bottom of the Hudson are a Church tribute act. In fact, Bottom of the Hudson are a band that you can talk about as somehow having absorbed a particular lineage of rock 'n' roll music and made it into their own thing. That lineage, if it (for the sake of argument) begins with the Church, also includes Echo and the Bunnymen, and travels into the year 2007 via nineties songwriters such as Lou Barlow. Eli Simon knows how to write a good song, and on this album he seems to have assembled a band of musicians who are all moving in the same direction. Sometimes it seems a little bit too samey-samey, but the combination of songwriting and musicianship helps it rise above tedium. You know all those mopey British bands that suck, like Snow Patrol? If they spent less time trying to pout in hopes that it would get them laid, and more time thinking about their musicianship, they might turn into something good, like Bottom of the Hudson. But since that won't happen, just go and get this record instead. It'll save the endless wait.