THCS “Little Bit of Blue” by What Time Is It, Mr. Fox? takes you to a smoky cafe where lonely lovers sip bittersweet absinthe, while over in the corner a piano player – accompanied by baleful strings, a smooth jazzy drummer and a sultry female quintet – provides the sound track to your romantic triumphs and disasters. Enter a world where Cee Lo Green meets Maurice Chevalier, soul meets jazz standard, and the crisp execution of classically trained musicians intersects with the heartfelt mysteries of the blues. In top hats and black suits, the aesthetic is curiously nineteenth century, but the polished production of this CD – beautifully recorded at Bang a Song Studios in Gloucester, Massachusetts – mark it as a thoroughly twenty-first century product. Along with French love ballads, some influences are clear and intriguing. “Deep Waters” owes a debt to PJ Harvey’s creepy 1995 alt hit “Down by the Water,” but that’s what brands this effort as a pop creation; in pop music influences are traded and mixed and reborn as new songs. The glue that holds every song together is the assured singing of 3rian King (I suppose his friends call him the more prosaic “Brian”), which makes no attempt to fill an arena but rather draws you closer, as if he were handing you a snifter of brandy by a crackling fire. The mood is indigo and the night is long, so put on your smoking jacket or Japanese silk robe, dream of lost loves and imagine new ones, and let this genre-defying collection take you across moonlit fields in a sleigh pulled by a team of cunning red foxes. (Thomas Hauck) THE NOISE WHAT TIME IS IT, MR. FOX? Little Bit of Blue 13 tracks Brian King and his menagerie of musical misfits seem to cover just about every style and mood that you could possibly think of, from soul and gospel, jazz and lounge pop, to cabaret, R&B and the great American Songbook. Brian King at once channels Al Green, Boy George, Tony Hadley, Freddie Mercury, Marc Almond, and Shirley Bassey. There are lush string arrangements, a children’s choir and a five piece backing vocal section, majestic organ swells, and even a singing saw. The production and recording is impeccable. What Time Is It Mr. Fox? has grown by leaps and bounds from its humble beginnings, constantly adding more artists and musicians to the mix to a point where Mr. Fox is no longer just a great band but a lifestyle, and a very cinematic, larger than life one at that. If you need an album to lift you up and feel something, anything, with a heavy heart and warm glow, there are thirteen reasons why this is that album. I couldn’t recommend this album more highly. (Joel Simches)