How else to explain the brave sonic steps they take on this disc: breaking up their beat in the most imaginative of ways ("Everything's Okay"), lyrically bending ever-so-slyly ("You Can Make Me") and, on "Mrs. Brown", proving for all capable of hearing that up-turning the Nineties doesn't necessarily have to spell Sixties (again). Then just for good measure, "Different Day" unplugs with results far more intriguing than a whole box-set of MTV scraps ever could and geez, how many albums can boast a cameo by Basil Rathbone, I ask you?

Ultimately then, connoisseurs of mature, melodic entertainment need get no better Idea than this one.

Idaho: Hearts Of Palm

Ides of Space: There Are No New Clouds

[Issue Twenty-Seven // January 2000]