The grey, spoilt by rain, imploring and elegiac, at least obviously lamenting awaits. Perhaps only grievous self-sacrifice. But in the booklet Pascal Humbert (with beard) and Jean-Yves Tola (without beard) laugh cordially. There's no reasoning with the dark, so they probably tried it in the daytime. This time even with vocals. And naturally "Short Stories" is predominantly an album about love, one of the few themes, in which everybody has a similar chance to fail. We jostle for love, everything does hinge on love, doesn't it.

A maximum of 4 horsepower, of the 16 of their main band are needed to make the ten songs (three of which are instrumentals) sound suitable. And a truck-load of friends, like for instance Kal Cahoone (Tarantella), who sings among others "If They Cheered": "Didn't mean to cause such a scandal/You were the bull I tried to handle/And when the trumpets started to play/It was moving I must say." About the difficulty of being the lover of a self-willed woman. "Lover" explains everything: "Caught that girl up a mountain/Fed her earth beneath the clouds/I didn't hear the thunder/Through her pleas, they were too loud." The first highlight - lyrically a swan-song, musically shortly before the eruption. And then, by jingo, once again a sign of life from dEUS singer Tom Barman, who sounds here like Stuart Staples with a cold. In a duet with Cahoone (title: "Sorry", the instrument of woe: violin) he fights an already lost battle: "Get her to call and ask for me/Get her to call and say I am sorry." The woman naturally says no: "I'm not calling you anymore/Gotta protect myself."

A saxophone on "Cavalcade", almost forgivingness in "The Trap". The finale is called, more sweetish than peacefully, "Angels". Short Stories about the catharsis of the soul: the world becomes understandable, life possibly somewhat easier. However, the drama remains inescapable.

3,5 stars (out of 5)