Mull Historical Society, City Awakenings (Xtra Mile) **** (From York Press)

Mull Historical Society, City Awakenings (Xtra Mile) ****

12:12pm Friday 27th January 2012 in CD reviews By Tony Kelly, Deputy sports editor

TOBERMORY tunesmith and multi-instrumentalist Colin MacIntyre pounds almost all the buttons in a sudden departure from his folkatronic roots.

Bizarrely though, the album only genuinely delves into the promising when straying from a formulaic start.

The first four tracks resonate with the sort of dizzying but one-note jauntiness as if a phial of liquid Bungle, Zippy and the other Rainbow characters was fired into his bloodstream. But from the nifty blues riff opening to Fold Out City, the six remaining tracks take a more compelling turn. Now it’s the dig society as changes of tempo meld with beguiling tunes and lyrics.

You Can Get Better moves like a runaway train; This Is Not My Heart is worthy of the best Paddy McAloon swoon, and closer Thameslink (London’s Burning) is an intriguing instrumental ending with an Arcade Fire-type exhortation. No need to mull over this, just take a good listen.