Whoa Tonto! Davis (sic) Eugene Edwards is riding the psychical prairie again. But instead of displaying the wide open spaces of the frugal land, 16 Horsepower is claustrophobic as usual on their new album. You can't describe their sound as "compact", "narrow" rather, is better-chosen. And Edwards does not sing, he proclaims. Since I've known 16 Horsepower, I've been deliberating who else his voice reminds me of. And now the relief. Well, bugger me with a fish-fork, but he sounds like a manic mixture of Mike Peters (The Alarm) and Liam Ó Maonlaí (Hothouse Flowers).

But it is not just his singing, the music is worth your while too. The roaring opener "Clogger", the bittersweet "Poormouth" or the sparse "Silver Saddle" - here a desolate keyboard is fighting for a bit of melody in the instrumental section, to be conquered again by monotonous vocals. Altogether, "Secret South" is the most accessible album from 16 Horsepower so far, from sounding pretty and melodious however, it is (fortunately) still far removed. The only exception being the Dylan-song "Nobody Cept You" - in the context of this CD it is almost mainstream.