The members of 16 Horsepower sure don't like to be idle. A few months ago David Eugene Edwards released the second album of his solo project Woven Hand within a year and he immediately announced the next band album, whilst the splendid Folklore album had only just been released.

That successor hasn't arrived just yet, but his colleagues Pascal Humbert (bass) and Jean Yves Tola (piano and percussion) meanwhile went into the studio under their occasional moniker Lilium. You could call it a hobby project, be it that the ten tracks they emerged with are just a bit too strong for such a condescending label.

From the sad waltz "If they cheered" on, you heave along on a bed made of twanging guitars, a whispering saxophone and tasteful organ chords. A bed made with the help of among others dEUS' Tom Barman and Billy Conway of Morphine. The only minus - oddly enough - is the best song of the album, "Whitewashed". Because from the moment that you have heard David Eugene Edwards sing that slow horror ballad, guest vocalists Kal Cahoone, Daniel McMahon and Jim Kalin can do whatever they do, you keep wondering how much more powerful it would have sounded from his mouth.

3,5 stars (out of 5)