Monolith Cocktail Blog

ALBUM REVIEW/Brian ‘Bordello’ Shea

Santa Sprees ‘Fanfare For Tonsils’

There have been some pretty stunning albums released this year and Fanfare For Tonsils is one of them; an album that is both experimental and great pop music, and as I think I mentioned when reviewing last year’s excellent Sum Total Of Insolent Blank, they are the closest thing we have to the weird 60s Beach Boys:  they have the same magic, the same on the edge of madness and sublimeness that few have the genius to pull off naturally.

Anthony Dolphin is quite simply one of the finest songwriters making music today. A man who wraps beautiful melodies to some simply stunning lyrics, writing about such strange characters and subjects and engulfing them in pure experimental musical wonderfulness that hints at their influences. Tom Waits, The Fall, Half Japanese, folk, soul, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll are all captured in their truly original sound. For the band take their influences and bend them into something refreshing and beautiful until it sounds like no one else but the Santa Sprees. Fanfare For Tonsils is simply unique in this day and age as it is the sound of a band not giving a damn. A band that knows what they are doing is truly magnificent: heartbreakingly magnificent. And there are few who can match their brilliance. This is the true sound of the underground. The soul and heart of the underground. This is the sound of the Santa Sprees.