The Self Help Group
Album: Dead Stars
Label: Union Music
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.theselfhelpgroup.com

"Dead Stars" is the long-awaited, long-overdue second full-length release from Brighton's The Self Help Group, following (not so) hot on the heels of 2013's "Not Waving But Drowning", 'Not Waving....' was a brilliant record, although for those that like genre tags, incredibly hard to pigeonhole. What was clear though was the fabulous harmonies provided by frontman, singer, guitarist and songwriter Mark Bruce and siblings Clara and Sarah Wood. In one moment you think 'ah, Fleetwood Mac' but almost immediately, there is a turn that brings them back to their own unique, beautiful and lovely sound. An often used umbrella phrase with the Groupies is Laurel Canyon. It's hard to disagree.

'Dead Stars' is so named because we are all the product of stardust and not a homage to deceased entertainment icons. The first album was a collection of songs derived from those strange, quirky stories, present and past, you often find on the right hand of the screen on Internet search engines. For songwriting inspiration, Bruce chooses to click on these, scratches the surface a little deeper than most and resurfaces with beautifully constructed touching stories of humanity, humility and wonderment often written with wit where appropriate. 'Dead Stars' continues with this approach. These include scientists discovery of the oldest living marine creature and in trying to prove the creatures age in the lab, they killed the creature ('Tides') the attempt by the Hungarian government in the 1930's to reduce a growing suicide rate by creating 'Smile Clubs'(Smile Club) and the heart-breaking story of the Dionne quintuplets who as very young children in the 1930's were housed and expolited as a money-making freakshow ('Quintland'). Working with the same producer as the on the first album, the album is again a small masterpiece, but with the added confidence and assured performance that a band will naturally have after working together and honing a craft over years. It is Bruce's song-writing and lyrical ability though, that is the real driver in this sublime record.

So if you want quirky, enlivening, entertaining and sometimes sorrowful insights into the human psyche, all played out to a briliant soundtrack of West Coast 70's folk/psychadelia, you could do a lot worse than obtaining a copy of this brilliant sophomore effort.

Get it as soon as you can, before they become everybody's favourite new band, You can thank me later.

Chris Giles