Cosmo Sheldrake – The Much Much How How And I

There is plenty to discover within Cosmo Sheldrake’s world.

Label: Transgressive
Released: 6th April 2018
Rating: ★★★

Old Vic composer, maverick producer and ‘found-sound’ expert, Cosmo Sheldrake is both weirder and more wonderful than your average pop star. Raised by a biologist and Mongolian overtone chanter, his unorthodox musical education comes to startling fruition on his first full-length record, an epic reflection on life as an artist constantly flirting with theatricality.

‘Linger Longer’ opens with a creepy, vaudevillian flourish that ‘Fever…’era Panic! At The Disco would be proud of, before merging into ‘Wriggle’- a deliciously itchy pop ditty. This sense of luscious old-fashioned awkwardness is carried throughout, dancing across the maritime-esque shuffle of ’Solar Waltz’, right through to ‘Pliocene’, named after the geological timescale that presumably influenced it’s heavy, plodding beat.

One to file next to Alt-J and Glass Animals, Sheldrake is an example of pretentious pop done well. His music certainly won’t be for everyone. But for those willing to open their minds, there is plenty to discover within his world. Don’t forget to pack your penny whistle… Jenessa Williams