15 tracks. Running time 49:32 Now for something different on Melliflua. Here's an album containing covers of songs from the late 1930s until the present day, with the recent ones being written by Peter Millward of the Drum Music label. As the illustrated digipak suggests, this is melancholy music for gloomy depressed hours in the company of cigarettes and booze while a jazz band out of an old noir film plays in the background. And with a title like Songs for Suicidal Lovers you know this is will be an inward looking musical journey. Most tracks have an easygoing almost nonchalant tempo, but there are a couple of exceptions. Instrumentation is mainly percussion, drums, and various guitars. Occasionally brass instruments like a mute trumpet add lonely jazz refrains, and there's even a track with the Eastern shakhuhachi and erhu. Pull up a chair and sit back with a whisky as “Angel Eyes” sets the mood for the fifty minutes ahead. Laid back softly clacking percussion and bass notes set the slow pace while guitar lazily adds melody. In this piece Shamus's voice is more like musical talking then singing per se, sometimes with an edge of resentment which fits the lyrics well. My favourite track has got to be the ambient “Atmosphere”. A prominent hi-hat percussion is heard against the haunting rising and falling notes of an ambient guitar. Both the music and vocals build in emotional intensity as the piece develops, the addition of drums and other effects filling out the sound field. The words suit Shamus's voice especially well on this piece, the whole effect of his voice with the superb music is hypnotic and begs one to hit the repeat button. What I like about Songs for Suicidal Lovers is that it could easily have been a collection of self-pitying songs which are merely depressing. Instead, the voice of the reclusive Shamus Dark has a vaguely angelic quality, like that of a fallen angel. Still, it's an album best savoured only occasionally.