Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

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I probably don’t have to tell you much more than the fact Town Topic packs 15 tracks into 22 minutes and that of those, four are tagged as “ringtones”, for you to gleam that Owen Ashworth’s latest EP is something of a curio. The soundtrack for artist and photographer Laurel Nakadate’s debut feature-length flick, Stay the Same Never Change, it is compiled much of rejigged Casiotone material, although there a handful of new recordings on offer here too. The first of these, “Ice Cream Truck”, is the calling card of the world’s most melancholy Mr. Whippy, with trademark dejected Ashworth vocals laid over twinkling chimes. It’s diverting, as is the plonky keyboard meandering of the title track and bright synth and punchy drums of “Lesley Gore on the TAMI Show”, if fairly unessential. More intriguing are the laidback beats of “I Like Common” and a clamorous reworking of “Green Cotton Sweater”, but in the end, Town Topic is as you’d expect a film soundtrack to be—one pretty much for purists, whether it be of the fans of the film or Casiotone completists.

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