Heavenly signing Huw Evans has a rarefied quality of inherent otherness that makes his music timeless. Produced by Cate Le Bon – who he also plays for – In the Pink of Condition is a carousel of wiry weirdo pop that references Paul McCartney’s Ram. It is warm and cosy like Linda’s lentil stew and woolly jumpers, or perhaps the sun-dappled LA streets this album was conceived on. Sharing the gawky, oddball qualities of the Kinks, XTC, Ariel Pink and Belle and Sebastian, its gently groovy sounds are best heard on Everybody’s On the Line and Moons in My Mirror – so cleverly constructed and quintessentially kooky that you half expect to hear John Peel poring over its excellence in the pauses between tracks. It’s not perfect – it could be trimmed of some of its mid-album flab – but those flaws are forgiven in the midst of Evans’ twisted charm.
