The Welcome Wagon - Welcome To The Welcome Wagon
The underlying problem with this charming yet ultimately disposable debut is this: Sufjan does it so much better
Fascinating to Freudian theorists it may be, but the parental urge to achieve vicariously through one's offspring is often doomed. All too frequently, natural ability is stunted by the presence of a misguided father, hitting pitches from the sidelines as though they were his own. So what do you do when the modern day bastion of folksome melodics – aka Sufjan Stevens - offers to produce your debut longplayer? Well, if you're husband and wife duo The Welcome Wagon you clasp him like a new-born to a teat. Drenched in countrified Gospel, Welcome To The Welcome Wagon bears its master’s unmistakable seal of approval. Yet such divine rubberstamping burdens the likes of American Legion and Sold! To The Nice Rich Man, leaving both wheezing as they fruitlessly furrow through the mist of Sufjan’s overbearing legacy. And herein lies the underlying problem with this charming yet disposable debut: the old boy at the helm does it so much better. [Billy Hamilton]