Stray Gods

On Stray Gods, CousteauX abandon their luxuriant tendencies for something darker still. From the fragrant funk of Cheap Perfume to the raw hedonism of Love The Sinner, through Hush Money's exhilarating sleaze; singer Liam McKahey ranges from blue-eyed soul to red-eyed ghoul. Ballads still reach for Jimmy Webb, or Lee Hazlewood classicism, and echoes of Bowie / Walker / Cave are ever present. Anti-hit, When the Bloom Has Left the Rose, speaks of the unspoken sorrows of growing old, whilst Miley Cyrus and Leonard Cohen covers collide sweetly. Cyrus' collaboration with Flaming Lips Wayne Coyne and Stephen Drodz is given a wide open country treatment here on the album's first single.