Who wants to be the last of anything?

I listened to the debut album from Soft Hearted Scientists a good three or four times today at work, and I still can't make my mind up. On the one hand, I'm really turned off by how their music is entirely suited for early mornings at Glastonbury after ten-too-many jazz cigarettes, singing lazily about waterfalls and mountains and the sun (and that's just the first song). It's very pastoral, gentle, spaced out and unassuming, and the lyrics smack of said drug-fuelled moments. On 'I'll Be Happy, I'll Be Sleeping' they muse about the dental problems of warlocks (this really happens), whilst there's a whole song about caterpillars (that'll be 'The Caterpillar Song'). The latter has quite a bitchin' guitar solo, which when combined with mellotron, sounds very druggy, too.

But I listened to it repeatedly, so the Cardiff band must be doing something right, right? Near the beginning they talk about "Love, loss and love" which is pretty much the album's theme, and they've got some really nice melodies in there. The song 'Siberia' makes an obvious but effective metaphor for dying love, while 'Drops In The Ocean' and 'Light Years to Nothing' are endearingly almost-philosophical. So despite my being cleaner than two whistles, I still dig them, regardless of the vibe.

Don't know much more about 'em, but have a look at their myspace for some more choons.

[download Soft Hearted Scientists - Light Years to Nothing]