Euros ChildsThe Miracle InnReview

Since announcing their split in May 2006, former Gorky's Zygotic Mynci vocalist, Euros Childs has shone as a prolific artist, penning and releasing two albums in little over a year. Ok, so The Miracle Inn only rolls in at 36 minutes and 29 seconds, but ahh...what a sublime few minutes they are. Never has short and sweet been a more fitting description.

The Miracle Inn is the follow-up to Childs' all-singing, all-dancing Welsh solo debut, Chops, and its follow-up, Bore Da, and on this third LP at last non-Welsh speaking fans are given a rare treat with a fully English sung record so we can finally understand the lyrics - not that that has ever seemed to matter with any of Childs' band incarnations. It's that wistful, eccentric Welsh purr that our ears are here for.

Album opener, “Over You” conjures up irresistible 60s Beach Boys organ, and harmonies to melt ice caps as Euros sings; 'I see diamonds in the trees/ and sunshine for you and me'. First single, “Horse Riding” has the potential to become as anthemic a summer tune as Supergrass' “Alright”, with all it's thrashing piano and sing-a-long 'ooh yeah' chorus irresistibility. But we are left with crushed hearts as the girl runs away, ‘with a tailor.' There's a cover of 60s band, The Turtles on “Think I'll Runaway” and the epic title track which extols Childs' beguiling voice through a folk-inflected sense of old, which has poetic reference points in ELO's “Mr Blue Sky”.

A timeless innocence runs through the soul of this record. Full of tales of bittersweet, bruised romance, told with a playfulness that veers from the melancholic and the mainstream, you are left filled with a hope-filled balloon of daydreams.

Voted best solo artist in the Welsh Rock and Pop Awards this year, Euros Childs really deserves recognition beyond the Valleys for crafting an album of such telling quirk and beauty. I listened to this record four times back-to-back whilst writing these words, and that’s saying something for a writer with severe music attention deficit disorder!