Bart and Friends "Make You Blush" CD EP $12 (L&L060) NEW!! Add To Basket.

Indiepop purists rejoice! Bart Cummings has reunited with his former Shapiros bandmate Pam Berry and Bart & Friends friend Mark Monnone to help out on his first recordings since I Was Lonely 'Til I Found You (2001, Library Records). And having mastered the art of stripping back the nonessentials to reveal life's true detail, these new songs are more than worthy entries in the Bart canon. New friends Louis Richter and Stanley Paulzen drop by to lend a hand, and the resulting eight songs on Make You Blush are perfect sleepy-eyed vignettes, not a million miles away from the quintessential indiepop Bart was making with bands like The Cat's Miaow in the mid-90s.

1) A Summer's Dream  2) Make You Blush  3) These Words Are Too Small  4) Memories Fade  5) Blue Moon  6) Come and See Me  7) Weave Your Name  8) None of These Things

"Hot, isn't it?

Which is why I'm sat inside listening to the new Bart & Friends album, "Make You Blush", and wondering how the whole world didn't explode when Pam Berry and two of The Lucksmiths got in a studio together to make an album.

Mark, Louis, Pam and Bart from The Cat's Miaow are most of Bart & Friends, and the sleeve notes to this album would have you believe that it's been produced by James Dean. All those people come together to perform songs as adorable as 'These Words Are Too Small' or 'Memories Fade' - both of which remind me of bands as diverse (well, you know what I mean) as Brighter and Belle and Sebastian in their long-gone prime.

But it's hard not to come back to Pam Berry's voice. That downbeat, lush, wonderfully familar voice that almost like no other in pop is like an extra instrument, and Bart and his mates provide the perfect backdrop.

My only gripe is that it's only eight songs long, and my the time of the almost tear-inducing 'Weave Your Name', it's nearly time to say goodbye - and then press play again, obviously. They leave us with 'None of These Things', which is about the only time the guitars sound threatening.

The eight songs come in at under 15 minutes, but it's a 15 minutes that'll live with for a long time. 'Make You Blush' has been the soundtrack to a weekend on the Lincolnshire Wolds for me this past two days. It's made a great weekend just about perfect. It'll do the same for you, wherever you are or wherever you're going." A Layer of Chips