Mocky Navy Brown Blues Review

The third album from Dominic Salole (for Mocky is he) will appeal to both 'Guilty Pleasures' hipsters and original fans ofoldskoolRnB.Such is the retro feel of the album that on frist listening one can only imagine that Salole and his friends (fellow Canadian pranksters Gonzales, Feist and Taylor Savvy, along with Warp-signed warbler Jamie Liddell) have stumbled upon a secret cache of 80'ssynthesisers.

There'sa distinct wiff of cheese to this album - from the opening hands-in-the-air proto-House throb of "Tears Of Joy", which you could imagine pumping from David Mancuso's Loft, to the closing brass-soaked confessional "I'm A Fool". Think Prince meets Cameo with a touch of Howard Jones.

Highlights include the slap bass-tastic "In The Meantime" (featuring Liddell's soaring tones), the tounge-in-cheek "Animal" and "Fightin' Away The Tears" -a downbeat and sultry slice of jazz only spoiled by Mocky's rapping talents, which are - in all honesty -more Blazin Squad than BDP. Still, it's difficult to dislike an album that contains the immortal line, 'Are you a smurf? Then why you blue?'