Everything’s been just a bit shit recently and I have rather descended into a bit of a slough of despond and my listening taste has gone along with it. Nowhere near enough time to listen let alone be careful with what play and what do you get, grey and dismal.

But a little ray has pierced the gloom. With the planned closure of Google Reader (boo hiss) came the need for a replacement – behold Feedly – and a welcome regeneration of interest in my feeds. Enter The Wild Honey Pie blog that I had neglected and therein a post about Dan Croll.

New to me I was, as the posts said I would, rather captivated by Compliment Your Soul (released tomorrow, Easter Monday), all jolly and upbeat, some natty rhythms and enough hooks to keep an angler happy, but mercifully the right side of schmaltz and tweeness. The other three tracks form his debut EP From Nowhere are similarly jolly affairs.

A Liverpudlian it seems, more of his stuff can be stream through Soundcloud and you can be dragged into the abyss that is Facebook (heaven save your soul) via his page, he of course has his own web site and You Tube channel and can be followed@dancrollmusic (phew!). Mr Croll has been buzzing shows at SXSW of late and doing some dates with CVRCHES so the mans’ stock is on the rise, you might catch him at one of his dates in May ……