Scientific

I'm quite excited. Why, I hear you think? Because my favourite no-one-else-has-heard-of-them-band are about to release their second album. Yes, that's right, The Soft Hearted Scientists are back!

This Welsh three-piece first popped up on my musical radar some two years ago when a copy of 'Take Time to Wonder in a Whirling World' fell through my letter box for reviewing. It was the first album I ever, or have ever, awarded five stars (partly because other sites I've written for don't do the star system). Sadly the site I wrote this for went through a drastic overhaul and now doesn't list music reviews. Needless to say though that review was so good, you would have bought the album there and then if you read it. Maybe.

Basically the sound is folky-pop but with a hint of psychedelia, in the sense that they use shimmering piano chords, effect heavy guitar solos (to good effect, not over the top) and have some of the most interesting, diverse, and clever lyrics I've heard - referencing everything from the evolution of Earth, Roman ruins, stars, planets, reality TV, the A470 and asking, 'who wants to be the last of anything?'

They themselves have said the band was formed on the idea that, "it would be cool to try and make music that conveyed even five percent of the feeling you get when you see shooting stars whooshing across a night sky in a distant place far away from home."

There aren't many bands who say things like that.