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Critic's Review
Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
One of the best albums of the whole mid-'90s chamber pop movement, Richard Davies' There's Never Been a Crowd Like This isn't as completely strange as the final Moles album, 1994's Instinct (which was a Davies solo album in all but name). It's quite mad, though. Davies' lyrics are unfailingly peculiar, whether serving as an impressionistic diary of his early days as a transplanted New Yorker ("Sign Up Maybe for Being"), making up stories about his Australian childhood ("Transcontinental"), or concerning topics that are probably obscure even to Davies himself ("Why Not Bomb the Movies?," "Chips Rafferty"). The melodies are similarly peculiar, but they're extremely inviting. Somehow, although the album was recorded with a simple guitar-bass-drums-piano quartet, plus trumpet and a pair of backing singers, the album sounds almost orchestral. Davies' appealingly plain voice, with its thick Aussie accent and tendency toward oddly rhythmic vocal melodies (as on "Topple Into My Fantasy"), puts the focus on the melodies and arrangements instead of the often nonsensical lyrics, which has the dual effect of making the songs more immediately inviting and enhancing the oddity of the lyrics once the listener recognizes their unique qualities. Worlds better than either album by his former Cardinal partner Eric Matthews, There's Never Been a Crowd Like This is sort of like a mid-'90s indie version of Smiley Smile, right down to its abbreviated length of under 30 minutes.
