This album is an interesting listening experience falling somewhere between Digital Ash In A Digital Urn by Saddle Creek label lords Bright Eyes and the eclectic intellectuality of Woven (but without the pretentious insanity).

The songs on offer on Inside/Absent are quirky, sparse and claustrophobic. You will find nothing epic in scale here. But it is very human and personal and if that’s your bag you will get it in spades on this album. Unfortunately it falls just shy of having any truly great songs on here, the hooks just aren’t memorable enough - even by eccentric quirky standards.

In a nutshell Inside/Absent is good but not ground breaking and it certainly won’t be to everyone’s taste.

However, there is one thing I really hate about this album - The piano. It’s awful.

It sounds like it has been programmed and not played. For the sake of Broken Spindles sanity I sincerely hope that that is the case as anyone who would play with such lack of feeling and disregard for any semblance of human rhythm must be categorically insane. I could forgive the piano if it was only on one song. Or subtly in the background or something. But no, track one - insane piano solo. Then the album gets going and you think you are safe. But it returns. And then it returns again in a starring role. It’s so bad it makes me want to destroy every piano (and piano soft synth) in the world.

Label: Saddle Creek
Website: www.saddle-creek.com
Release date: 22nd August 2005

Tracklist:

1. Inward
2. This Is An Introduction
3. Burn My Body
4. Please Don’t Remember This
5. Desaturated
6. Birthday
7. The Distance Is Nearsighted
8. Valentine
9. Anniversary
10. Painted Boy Face