Soft Explosives (HitIt!)
Are you drunk on beauty? That’s the question posed by one of the songs on this extraordinary record, and answering it with a resounding yes is easy once you’ve surrendered to the pop majesty of Butterfly Child. Though the record is really just a 75-minute swoon, lead Child Joe Cassidy is not just another string-obsessed slacker — he’s a crafty, classy pop architect in the tradition of Brian Wilson and the High Llamas’ Sean O’Hagan. In his less bombastic moments, even Oasis’ Noel Gallagher has tried to achieve the kind of taut, melodic splendor that Cassidy displays on the yearning “Number One” and the heartbreaking “The Sound of Love Breaking Apart”; perhaps Childs’ greatest achievement is that he makes the creation of this lush, intimate pop seem so effortless.
