A bit of a mongrel offering today with ‘Accountants By Day’ from Kescho, released on the Swedish net label 23 Seconds – from which on the first listen alone you can pick up hints of everyone from Donovan to The Libertines, via The Coral, The Fugs and any number of ‘odd’ Indie in-betweeners, which isn’t a bad mix at all really although it does make for something of a scattered album.
Musically it’s surprisingly consistent despite the obvious litany of influences, with a mix between delicately ethereal meanderings and upbeat strumming (with the occasional mild touch of something darker) guiding you through without making too many demands on the listener and, on occasion, throwing in a nice hook to raise the average. Perhaps a bit more experimenting could have taken place – the foundations for which are already there but there seems to be a slight hesitance in letting the instrumental aspect of things take over from the vocals, which restrains proceedings somewhat given that the foundations there could easily have been put to a more interesting final product but the Bluesy folk reverence towards the words is understandable given that they’re really rather good. I wouldn’t say that there was endless lyrical depth to be found in ‘Accountants By Day’ but there’s enough wit and intelligence there to make the writing the clear star of the piece, but again some more risk taking beneath the vocals would have been nice and needn’t necessarily have worked to their detriment.
The actual delivery is probably the biggest sore point here given the deliberately frail nature of the singing which can be done very well (as with Emilie Lund, Entertainment for the Braindead et al) but which always runs the risk of just sounding weak, something which does become an issue here from time to time. Although that’s a failing I’m inclined to forgive for the sake of the lyrical charm which is the stand out feature on this effort. Keshco are certainly worth hearing for that strength alone but for future efforts a more relaxed attitude towards the underlying style would be a definite plus, picking up on the well constructed nature of it and taking some risks beyond that, rather than simply trying to offer up a merely solid foundation.