The Musicgoer: Ballboy's I Worked on the Ships

BALLBOY
I Worked on the Ships
(Pony Proof)
**** (out of 5)

My favourite song from Ballboy’s I Worked on the Ships is “Above the Clouds the Sun Is Always Shining,” which builds an intricate five-minute fugue out of nothing but these lyrics: “You’re walking home/And you’re on your own/And the mobile phone/Has no news at all.” The song couldn’t be better: it perfectly captures the feeling of... well, walking home all alone without getting any messages on your mobile phone. And the cello and the piano and the glockenspiel add a lonely, autumnal feel to the whole thing—you can practically feel the dead leaves under your feet. Ah, what could be sadder?

This is the fifth studio album from the Scottish indie band (a favourite of the late British DJ John Peel), and like its predecessors, it’s a beautifully observed collection of gentle half-sung, half-spoken story-songs that manage to be melancholy without being depressing, expressing a fundamental faith in humanity even on a post-9/11 tune like “Godzilla vs. The Island of Manhattan (With You and I Somewhere In-Between).” Like their countrymates Belle and Sebastian, they're way on the twee side of the pop spectrum, but a little glockenspiel here and there never killed anybody. Now if only they can work on shortening those song titles...