I should probably give this album 90%. I should really like it. It’s got a good write up in general; it’s a release from a respected and experienced artist with a good set of influences and a solid discography. I should think Circular Sounds is really good and tell you to go and buy it. The only problem is that I can’t. I actually don’t like this album very much. I’ve tried with it, I really have. I listened to it like, loads, I’ve thought about it a lot, I’ve sat on the tube and made notes and tried to draw favourable comparisons between it and other great music. But still, I get a few minutes into this album and I just feel”¦ well a bit bored, really. I end up day-dreaming a lot when this is on. I think about things like work or the book I’m reading or what to do on the weekend. The last time I listened to it I thought about computer games ”“ I beat my friend at Call of Duty 4 really badly recently, I figured out how to use stun grenades to great effect. Oh, and I’m also reading Labyrinths, it’s a collection of works by Jorge Luis Borges, that’s really good too, a friend bought it for me. Erm.. what was I talking about?Oh yeah Circular Sounds is Kelley Stoltz’ third release on Sub-Pop. It’s pretty okay, I guess.I like the idea of Kelley Stoltz, he produces his stuff at home and keeps a tab on his electricity consumption ”“ Circular Sounds is actually a carbon neutral record. Pretty neat huh? Stoltz’s music is influenced by and compared to a whole host of painfully credible artists like Velvet Underground, The Kinks and Nick Drake. He’s had stuff used on adverts, so you might’ve actuallyheard him even if you’re not already a fan.Considered in isolation, a lot of the tracks on this album pass for cute little nuggets of intelligent, psychedelic-pop fun. Which makes them perfect for pairing up with some ‘quirky’ visual art and advertising phone tariffs. Fair enough.Upbeat opener ‘Everything Begins’ is a highlight, somehow managing to lodge that playful discordance and the deliberately strained vocal refrain firmly in your brain to repeat in your head until you’re halfway through the rest of the album. I particularly like “oooh ah oooh ooh’ at the end, but then I’m a sucker for that kind of thing. There’s a few moments like that, the ‘bub-bub-bub-baa, ooooh’ at the end of ‘Put My Troubles to Sleep’ which happens to be the second highlight of this collection, a soothingly laid-back ballad with a really sweet little chorus and pretty slick vocal performance.Hey, look. I’m open to the suggestion that’s there’s something wrong with me as a person for not being really into this album. It’s just that when I sit down to listen to this for an extended period of time, it does really start to grate. I mean, for one thing the lyrics are bad. I mean they’re bad. That’s a crime that we can forgive at times quite easily, but for some reason I find it very difficult to stomach lines like "It’s haaard, to speak to the Girl" sung over and over again with such excruciating literal intent. Not that everything has to be incredibly abstracted and arty, I know, but I just don’t get that. Am I supposed to relate to that or something? ‘Hey! Yeah! Speaking to girls IS hard!”Maybe I’m just being grumpy because I’m hungy. Hold on.Okay I’m back, I just had a lovely salad and I still don’t like this album. Guess that’s solved it.I’m sure there are plenty of people that’ll really like this, which is more than I could manage. I seriously recommend you all check Circular Sounds, because it’s definitely got some sort of appeal and it comes from an artist who is actually good at what he does. It just really didn’t appeal to me that much. Sorry. Ugh, I hate giving bad reviews. Maybe it’s a grower. 59%Links Kelley Stoltz [official site] [myspace] [buy it]