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Dave Rotheray is the kind of songwriter whose muse is so restless it will not let him rest. Rotheray's day job is to be the creative foil to Paul Heaton in The Beautiful South. During downtime he can't stop the songs leaping from his fingers and out through his guitar.
If We're So Happy is the first single from Homespuns second LP. Rotheray recruited Sam Brown and her velvet fist of a voice for these country-tinged songs: think that strange branch line of country music made by sullen Englishman. This has shades of The Lilac Time and The Rockingbirds. It breezes by like litter on a spring wind, three tracks in less then seven minutes. If We're So Happy paints a picture of domestic stagnation against a peeling pedal steel guitar and mooching bongos. Brown's powerful voice is the perfect fit.
"I am in the buffet in Kings Cross, imagining sex with you / It's a bad first line for a song perhaps but it happens to be true." So opens Whistlestop Blues, a gentle acoustic strum through the loneliness of travelling alone. Final track Lonely Together sounds the most like The Beautiful South: chords banged out on a pub piano and another tale of domestic blues tumbles forth. This is grown up pop music - it's smooth, well played and has a sly wit about it. One for those hungover Sunday mornings.
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