New Albums
BUFFET LUNCH
The Power Of Rocks
Intriguing compendium of Caledonian quirkiness
UPSET THE RHYTHM
7/10
Two well-received 20 20 EPs gave notice of Glasgow/ Edinburgh-based Buffet Lunch’s idiosyncratic art rock, and this full-length debut offers a more detailed portrait. The maniacal waltz of “Red Apple Happiness” suggests a mash-up of Mark E Smith and Kurt Weill, all jerky guitars and militaristic woodwind, and similarly oddball musical mosaics lay the foundations for railing against ineffectual politicians (“Pebbledash”) and extolling the joys of rugged coastal life (“Bladderwrack”), while the uplifting title track is an even more fulsome celebration of the natural world (recording took place on the banks of Upper Loch Fyne in Argyll). It’s an album packed with leftfield ideas and off-kilter lyrical narratives seemingly fashioned in fever dreams.