ALBUM REVIEW: Novelty Island – ‘Jigsaw Causeway’

We’re enduring a bizarre time in the British Isles. It’s pretty downbeat, what with division, flag debates, and more concerning issues than Big John “the Boshfather” Fisher and Tom “that Apprentice guy” Skinner being pitted as a bosh-themed angel and devil on society’s shoulders; which way round being dependent on a person’s political affiliations. It’s tiresome. And yet within that there’s a real case for the UK’s cultural cool rising back to ‘90s levels. GQ has recently tried to discover our country’s current spirit, interviewing a cross-section of much loved celebs from Chloe Kelly to Jason Isaacs to Jade Thirlwall on, yes, the state of nation, but also our best biscuits. Stratospheric popstars are dating British blokes a lot, apparently. Pinkpantheress is doubling down on our sarcastic kitsch, style and unique regional sayings. So, are better things coming?

We hope so. As amongst some of the gloom and doom, there’s plenty of joy to be found in the smallest of Britishisms: an unnecessary apology on the tube, a whole pub crowd cheering someone seeing off a pint, Alison Hammond’s laugh. There’s also Tom McConnell’s one-man band Novelty Island, with a self-described sound as his hometown hero Paul McCartney meeting Dylan Moran’s Black Booksprotagonist, and a name surely taken from the regular Vic & Bob segment. It’s like a microcosm of the cosy strangeness the country does so well, especially in latest record / art piece Jigsaw Causeway, washed in an intentional lo-fi production to mimic the pieced-together puzzle approach to the overall picture, including psychedelic sounds of the past and the heavy influence of Boards Of Canada––particularly the way their The Campfire Headphase album feels like you’re imagining music from core childhood memories.

Each of the ten tracks McConnell’s presented here is a reflection of travelling around the country, and each experience having a profound effect no matter how mundane or breathtaking the surroundings. Beyond Shetland, Northern Nowhere namechecks the M6, Someone Disappearing takes place “on platform 4”, and Apollo sees the narrator stuck on A and B roads. And away from the drudgery of such liminal spaces—plus the obligatory weather-related musings on the Beatles-esque Rainy or I’m Glad It’s Not Sunny—there’s some interesting songwriting tricks at play. The waltz-like backing on Someone Disappearing does disappear when the eponymous phrase is uttered. McConnell also managed to record with the oldest mining brass band in the country here too (very cool!) which pays off by being one of the album’s most memorable parts, and displaying growth beyond the project’s humble DIY beginnings in a Welsh cottage.

The overall fuzz and squelch in the to-tape recording keeps everything grounded from start to finish, despite the singer playing around with a heckload. The opener feels as if it’s going one way, then adds cheap synths and things to keep you on your toes. A similar tinkering-in-the-spare-bedroom sound is achieved on Foam Animals that has obscure surf guitar sections. Floating’s plucked guitars and bleep-boop electronics give way to a bass going mental. In fact, all across the runtime, the songs’ stretched outros really ramp up the fun. Apollo does lean a little toward the epic of its Greek God references, and the verbal diarrhoea style that sees out The Only Train Driver In England successfully conveys McConnell’s future anxieties. An Orange Goodbye takes a fantastic closing melody from something quite grandiose into the riff played on…a Wurlitzer(?). It’s playful and just the right amount of silly.

There’s a real homespun, retro feel to Jigsaw Causeway that is a bit like Bagpuss or The Herbs: comforting, a nice trinket box of ideas. It’s steeped in the past, and maybe a little too washed out at times to always command your attention, yet feels very fitting as an accompaniment to the artist’s exhibition of the same name––featuring weird paper papier-mâché sculptures and ‘handmade detritus’ conveying the growing Novelty Island universe. Even for all its moments of darkness, there’s still jokes, self-deprecation and the musical equivalent of a warm hug that are perfect in these times, proving McConnell and his fellow British folk still have the power to make the place better through art, innit.

For fans of: Birds Flying Backwards, Divorce, Tame Impala

‘Jigsaw Causeway’ by Novelty Island is released on 3rd October on 9×9 Records.

Words by Elliot Burr