The album was recorded onto an ancient Tascam at Sean Lennon’s studio in upstate New York while Saul was working on the Moonlandingz album. It was subsequently produced by Sean and mixed by Marta Salogni. Taking inspiration from the exotica of Arthur Lyman, the early electronic pop of Perrey and Kingsley, the supreme smoothness of The Carpenters, the songwriting chops of Harry Nilsson and the hypnagogic uncanniness conjured up by David Lynch it’s outwardly a charming exercise in timeless pop, exotica and easy listening however, there lurks a darker heart beneath the surface. As Saul says it’s “pretty music with a dark underbelly to it”. The subject matter is just as weird, surreal and dark as you would expect. Cliff Has Left The Building is about “Operation Yew Tree’s greatest urban myth”; Whitney Houston & I (which features pre-teen pop singers the Honey Hahs) is about the similar ways in which the tragic mother and daughter, Bobbi, died (“It is a provocative song but I genuinely found the story unbearably sad”); while unashamed banger Mekong Glitter is about the now disgraced Gary Glitter (“I don’t think he should be let off the hook, I just want to ask why?” says Saul referring to the double standards applied to a lot of musicians who rose to fame and fortune during the 1970s.) And that’s all before Subaru Nights which is a celebration of suburbia and exotica, like Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party soundtracked by the sounds of Martin Denny’s imaginary Hawaii, the unbelievably catchy Teenage Toy, which has a chorus rescued from a song by The Saudis (Lias and Saul’s pre-Fat White Family pub rock band) and the beautiful bittersweet love song I Don’t Wanna Dance (With My Baby). “This is definitely a much more honest account of who I am and where I come from,” concludes Saul. Finally, after a handful of appearances in and around South London, the band head out on a U.K headline tour in March, including a show at the Scala in London. The touring line up features up to 11 musicians on stage having settled down into a stable (but large) line-up centred round Saul (vocals/guitar), Ben (bass/backing vocals), Marley Mackey (Dirty Harrys) on lap steel, Victor Jakeman (Claw Marks) on organ, Joe Isherwood (We Smoke Fags) on keyboard, saxophonist Alex White and mysterious South London music teacher known only as Steely Dan on vibraphone and steel drums.