Spratleys – Bloom (ATE) – We’ve been sitting on this one for months waiting for it to properly bloom, by which we mean we were waiting for Spratleys and ATE to get all their ducks and geese in line before we posted about it. The fact that Bloom quietly emerged (or blossomed) on June 21st, on Midsummer day, on the day of the Summer Solstice, it all feels just so right, actually everything about this album feels just so so right, oh yeah. (Oh yeah!).
Now if you know who Spratleys are then you know, then again, if you don’t know then it doesn’t really matter, there is a rich history and all kinds of emotion but this is about the here and now and the musical depth of it all, this is about a group of musicians both celebrating something beautiful and at the same time releasing new music, an exciting new album and a new album that deserves to be heard by as many people as possible.
This is the new album from Spratleys, a band or group of beautiful musicians lead by a singer, music maker, frontwoman and Goddess called Jo, it is a very (very) beautiful very deep album. Every moment of Bloom is wonderful, every note beautiful, everything so beautifully rich, songs and tunes alive with hope and the glorious stench of everything that is life. Songs that sound like they’ve come from a musical box, songs that are sometimes plant-like and delicate (never fragile though, this is delicately strong), songs that sometimes lash like a vicious horse’s tail (or maybe a tale, tales, tails..), musical tales that gallop with insect hooves and as their bright colours reach for the sky, it a thing that glitters so so radiantly. Sometimes art deco flavoured, songs sometimes plays in the shadows, tunes and words that twirl and dance, songs that dances with such elegance.
If you really don’t know, then Spratleys are a band who evolved out of a project put together by Jo Spratley and the much loved much missed Cardiacs leader of the starry skies and so much more, the one known as Tim Smith. Together they made some of the finest music Tim Smith was ever involved in and here that beautiful spirit is well and truly alive and glowing, it is nothing short of deeply emotional, it is glorious, I make no apology for saying these things, for saying that everything is indeed devilish happy ever after here, that this is wonderful. This new Spratleys album is richly beautiful, it does indeed bloom, it bursts with growth, with leaves and lights and things that shine and pull you in. This is where were we were with the previous album Pony, this is a golden place and oh how wonderful is Gold Place, has an album ever ended in such an elegant way? Not that I wanted to rush to the end, this has been on rotation here for months now and every time it goes around it is as good as the first time.
Etienne, Jesse, Adrien, Jo and Damo as well as the various members of the extended Cardiacs family have made something very special here and yes I know you expect us to say all this, it is hardly front page news; stop press, Organ in liking the new Spratleys album shock! But hey, this is extra special (oh yeah!) and I’m not going to hold back, this is (as I have said a number of times about music in recent weeks) why we still do this stupidly time consuming Organ thing we should have stopped doing ages and ages ago.
Bloom is all we had hoped for and more and she flies and there is so much treasure to treasure here (treasure in the cup that got full of mud in the rain) and I don’t really want to have to stand here finding words and try to writing about it. I just want to bask in the glow of it all, the essence of it all, I just want to play it. And I do keep hearing my favourite bit and then I hear another bit and that’s my new favourite bit, not that this is in bits, these are deliciously full bodied songs and all of them glorious devils (the devil in the detail?).
Tim Smith always insisted that this was something very special, that it was about far more than just him, I’m pretty sure that wherever he is, he is very proud of what has bloomed and blossomed here. This is an album to grin like an alligator over, what a band this is, what an album this is, what glorious pop music, so much depth, so many glowing details, what wonderful music, what adventures, all that glitters. And yes I could say so much more about things but really, I just want to enjoy that magic, this magic, that magic that has given us so so much for so long, that magic that is here and as much as it surely must of exhausted them to make this album, I for one want more more more from this wonderful wonderful band, music is a great isn’t it….. (sw)
Bloom began taking form in 2016 when Tim Smith’s Spratleys Japs took to the stage for the first time as a live band with Tim in attendance at almost all of their sold out shows. Spratleys last live performances were on the Sing To Tim tour of 2024.
Spratleys and Panixphere, as you can see, will be on tour in September 2026; 11th The Garage London, 12th Ambers Manchester and 13th Brudenell Leeds. Ticket links on the Bandcamp page
Previously on these pages
THE ORGAN 