Hepburns - Something Worth Stealing

Radio Khartoum
(khz107: 664449202328)

$12.99

1. The Last Thing I Saw Before I Said Goodbye
2. Fire Red Car
3. During British Winters
4. New Skin
5. Geoff's Cape
6. Devil up a Drainpipe
7. I Thought I Was Something Special Until I Met You
8. My Fellow Cobra
9. Heavyweight Bohemians
10. Song for Velma
11. Pop Artists
12. Almost Beyond Comprehension

Probably the Hepburns’ lightest album, Something Worth Stealing was written as a romantic fling with no skeletons in the closet...well, unusually few skeletons by Hepburns standards, discounting the up-tempo duet with the dead guy who comes back to woo a former lover, the ghostly coal mine choir in the jazzy shadows on the ditty about the strongman’s cape, and, perhaps, the ode to Scooby-Doo’s Velma. This album is more a celebration of joyrides, spring storms, dinosaur incisors, winter fashions, boho wannabes, humdrum and conundrum, the occasional poisoned dart, and the use of the word “penultimate.” SWS showcases the blossoming of the Hepburns’ association with White & White (brass and flute, respectively) which started halfway through the sessions for the last album. In addition to the Hepburns’ trademark organ and vibraphone riff-laden, jazz- and ska-tinged jangle, topped with words that could have only been penned by Matt “all Welshmen are Liars” Jones, the new album features the song everyone has been waiting to hear since the last album: “The Last Thing I Saw Before I Said Goodbye.” - Alexander Bailey