The Parsonage - This Ain't No Lovey Dovey

Hands up who saw choirs coming back in fashion? Nope, me neither. But The Parsonage have chosen to give guitar music a wide berth and instead opted to create choral cover versions of songs spanning decades. Sometimes, as on Please Help Me I'm Falling, it works very well indeed; others, as on hobo folk song, it's positively archaic and utterly baffling in today's musical climate. Their decision to take on Love Will Tear Us Apart has to be applauded for its sheer balls. Amazingly, it's rather beautiful, and hearing the song sung rather than mumbled is refreshing, the multiple layers of vocals lending an already poignant song even more depth. The whole collection makes for impressive and faultlessly sung material, but that it exists at all is something of a mystery. This Ain't No Lovey Dovey is an enjoyable listen, certainly, but it's hard to imagine quite what they're hoping to achieve. [Heather Crumley]