Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In amongst all the signs of having enjoyed a debut album by a band surely listening to it and not notice the time slip away from you as it pulls you in to its musical soul has to rank highly. Another sure fire way is when you find yourself humming along with the harmonies in a relaxed fashion, the infectious nature getting to you quite easily and the smile returning to your lips as you swim amongst unhurried lyrics and elegant instruments.

The vast majority of the songs on the debut album by The Jigantics, the smooth and virtuous Daisy Roots, may be covers but that doesn’t stop Rick Edwards, Mark Cole, Marion Fleetwood, Lyndon Webb and Martin Fitzgibbon putting their own personal slant on the tracks. It is an arrangement that works well, for if you are going to cover somebody else’s music then at least make it stand out and not become just yet another clone, a perfect replica, a dull unoriginal copy.

With tracks that have been written by the likes of James Siberry, a long-term collaborator of the ever-impressive K.D. Lang, Loudon Wainwright III and Tom Waits, the pedigree is there, all the band had to do was make sure the sound they produced was perfect and they have succeeded with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel. The five members of the band had not only recorded something very special but they have done it with style and grace as well, a rare talent when covering somebody else’s words.

Tracks such as The Valley, the traditional Lakes of Pontchartrain, the fantastic Bad Liver And A Broken Heart, Hold On and the magnificent composition by Martin Fitzgibbon, the quirky but immensely enjoyable George Foreman Grill make Daisy Roots an album to get lost in, to while away the hours without even realising it.

The rich vocals and generous instrumentation, including some pretty impressive work on the accordion, banjo and guitar give the whole album a quality of which any music lover would have been proud to have been on in any capacity as long as they could have seen it recorded. A tremendous debut.

Ian D. Hall