For nearly eight years now Dublin songwriter Thomas Walsh of Pugwash has been conjuring up perfect pop gems that have seen the band garner many plaudits and some all too brief stints in the charts. Sometimes you just fall head over heels in love with a record. I did so with their 2005 album, Jollity . It is gorgeous pop melodies, amorous lyrics and un-rivaled song writing took a piece of my heart which I shall never reclaim. It was like the first time I heard Revolver by the Fabs or Stanley Road by Paul Weller. Every song seemed to leap out at me proclaiming its brilliance and hitting all the right lyrical and musical funny bits. Wherever I was in my life at the time, this was my record. I would listen to it over and over again and always I found something new that I could latch onto. My first listen to their latest effort 11 Modern Antiquities threw up an interesting question. How do I begin to do justice to this remarkable piece of work? I am at pains here. In the absence of the adequate superlatives, it is a masterpiece, plain and simple. Ably assisted yet again by bass player Keith Farrell the album also features Neil Hannon, Nelson Bragg, Michael Penn and Johnny Boyle on percussion, Walsh navigates us through yet another great album. Opening this merry little shindig is Take Me Away a harmonious nugget that sounds as equally brilliant on the radio as it does on the record. All the essential Walsh song writing elements are there, the melody that emanates so naturally, the up-tempo beat, it is the perfect single. The initial crash of Cluster Bomb gives way to the luscious strings of Dave Gregory who s string arrangements on both this album and Jollity is not to be underestimated. They seem to lend an urgency to the tune, dashing up and down while embellished by the lovely ivory tinkling and backing vocals of guest Hannon from the Divine Comedy. Here is a gorgeous, love song with handsome Brian Wilson like orchestration that tells a tale of yearning and features the immortal line, Stop me finding fear in everything I see and hear. It is one of those everyman lyrics that John Lennon would pull out from time to time. It shows Walshs lyrical strength. He always seems to strike that chord without being too wordy. I always refer to the light and shade, diversity if you will, that any songwriter needs to be great. Walsh has it in buckets. It is not hard to hear the influence of The Beatles, The Beach Boys and Jeff Lynne in his music. Many imitate, but very few make their own sound. Pugwash are a band that have. Walsh is never afraid to try new things and he moves readily between moods and tempo without ever losing momentum or the listeners interest. This is evident on the next two tracks. Its So Fine is a sixties pop rollick while Song For You is an attractive acoustic led number that features some wonderfully subtle percussion by Boyle. Lyrically, again, on My Genius Walsh is first-rate. You fell for my genius, but my genius is out of a bottle. It s another little belter that displays that Pugwash pop intellect so eloquently. Its instantly likeable and another example of Pugwashs immediacy. Limerance (a study into the scientific nature of romantic love no less!) is the song I keep coming back to. The fuzzed vocals and sparkling piano are almost dream like. The backing vocals and harmonies embroider it before a wonderful guitar break (by none other than Michael Penn) and bass line take over and push it into entirely different terrain. Your Friend will surely be the next single. Its perfect pop for the airwaves. Its a typical Pugwash song in the vein of Its Nice to be Nice or This Could Be Good. The kind of tune that turns a bad day into a good one when it comes on. I cant emphasise how good this album is. Go and buy it, listen... embrace... let it take over your life! --redtrackmusic.com - Rob McNamara - March 2008There s a lot of attention given to what has become known as the difficult second album . In reality, things dont get any easier with the third, or in Pugwashs case, the fourth. Following the 2005 JOLLITY was a big undertaking, yet Thomas Walsh has made it sound like one he has relished. In fact, 11 MODERN ANTIQUITIES is an album that has such an array of qualities, that it s easy to overlook some of them. The single TAKE ME AWAY opens proceedings, featuring a bassline that almost steals the limelight all to itself. As you move deeper into the album, it evokes images of many of Pugwashs heroes and influences, a number of whom are guests and co-writers (XTC s Dave Gregory and Andy Partridge, Jason Falkner and Michael Penn, to name but four). Many of the ideas arent what you would class as groundbreaking, but its the manner in which they are delivered that is truly remarkable. ITS SO FINE and LANDSDOWNE VALLEY draw your mind back to decades past, and would sit perfectly well with the best that those years had to offer. Forgive STATE for using the O word, but if Noel Gallagher wrote songs like these, he might manage to drag Oasis from the creative doldrums that they have been inhabiting for the past decade. The point cant be made any other way; 11 MODERN ANTIQUITIES is a triumph.  Pugwashs Thomas Walsh has been quietly crafting classic pop melodies for almost a decade, but only now is he getting the credit he deserves. Taking his influences from some of the greats, 11 M.A. sees Walsh now joined by them, with two tracks, My Genius and At the Sea , co-written with XTC s Andy Partridge. --The State - April 2008ABLE SEAMEN THOMAS WALSH FORGES CHAMBER POP BEAUTY. JOURNALIST RUNS OUT OF SUPERLATIVES. There are a number of words us music journalists use as shorthand to describe things in the hope that you ll understand what we re talking about ... angular , hooky , warm , poptastic . One of these often used phrases is chamber pop . And when I heard Thomas Walsh s excellent new album the only think I could think of saying was this is chamber pop . So that got me thinking about what the feck that actually meant. Okay. Chamber suggests chamber music of the classical genre. So Pugwash s album has a level of sophistication in its song structures that suggests opposable thumbs and a highly developed cerebral cortex. This means it s beautifully arranged harpsichords, pianos, strings, synths, vocoders, guitars and vocals wrap themselves beautifully around the songs. But to be honest that doesn t tell you a huge amount. Then, of course, there s the word pop . This bit suggests it s very, very catchy. And it is very, very catch. From the single Take Me Away to Here to Song For You , you will be humming this at the traffic lights. However, pop s a pretty broad church that stretches from the Pixies to Girls Aloud. So that doesn t tell you much either. I could impress upon you all the other luminaries who ve noticed just how special Walsh s songs are. I mean this record includes (as well as regular bandmates Keith Farrell and Johnny Boyle) contributions from Andy Partridge and Dave Gregory of XTC, Neil Hannon, Michael Penn and the Section Quartet. But let s face it, as far as you re concerned there s no accounting for taste and I could be an escaped mental patient who s killed Patrick Freyne and stolen his laptop. So all I can do really is say this is very good and give it a decent mark. PATRICK FREYNE KEY TRACK: HERE --Hot Press - 22 March 2008