Casiotone for the Painfully Alone's latest, "Etiquette," has a few rough spots, mostly courtesy of some distracting and unnecessary guest vocalists, but it also contains some of Casiotone mastermind Owen Ashworth's best songs, and if you're a fan of songwriting that mixes wit, despair and semi-ironic deadpan delivery, Ashworth should still be one of your main go-to guys. On "New Year's Kiss," he sounds like a somewhat less venomous and filthy Aidan Moffat (Arab Strap), but the brief vignette of pedestrian romantic disappointment that Moffat would make sting with cynicism, Ashworth approaches with understated but sweet compassion. Also available for free download are "Young Shields," which has a bit more of a pop sheen than the usual Casiotone number, and one of the album's real standout tracks, "Cold, White Christmas," a painfully lonely tale of directionless post-college existence.
-- T.B.
Shares