Michou

Cardona

(Independent)

Formed a few years back, the band Michou offers up a sound utterly unique in today’s inconsistent musical landscape.

Featuring Mike Hargreaves, Sasha Appler, Ryan Frith and Stefan Cvetkovic, the band can perhaps best be described as having a ‘refreshingly light outlook’ as their CD liner notes explain.

And what started out as a Hargreaves solo project ultimately branched out into something bigger when Appler, Frith and Cvetkovic signed on to help fill out his musical vision on the stage.

The result? A rather effortless collaboration melding singular pools of talent into a blend of pop-rock simplicity. Opening cuts Growing Younger and Eavesdropping showcase this sunny approach to making tunes, from the songwriting to the performance.

It’s clearly not to everyone’s liking – Michou treads that ground of not being commercial enough to attract a whole lot of radio airplay (the rather odd sounding Windsor for example) while being otherwise rather difficult to categorize.

Sometimes expressing oneself in a particular way simply will never be a sure-fire way of generating attention. Summer Night reveals more of that notably unique and unusual way of crafting a tune. For some, exactly what the doctor ordered. For others, the ‘light’ fluffy nature of some of the songs (Numbers) will be simply unappealing.

Ultimately, you have to admire a band that so resolutely sticks to its vision, regardless of how much attention it may garner in the end.

Rating: 3.5 out of five

-Mark Weber