The Crowd Scene: With Complete Glossary For Squares

These are subdued times for the Crowd Scene. Finally, 10 years after the group’s excellent debut album Turn Left at Greenland, an upbeat-ish ’60s-inspired psych-folk-pop feast, the husband-and-wife team of Grahame Davies (vocals/multi instrumentalist) and Anne Rogers (vocals/bass guitar), along with permanent drummer Evan Pollack and friends have returned with an intimate album of wistful reflection. With Complete Glossary for Squares is a solid two-part-harmony outing of sugar free chamber-beat-pop that touches base musically with contemporary bands like Camera Obscura and the Essex Green, especially on “Which Way”, sadly Rogers’s only lead vocal this time around, while recalling such observational lyricists as Ray Davies, Chris Difford and Glen Tilbrook. They even sound faintly like Squeeze on album highlights “Edward Learjet”, “Trick Photography” and “Cracked Leather Seat”.