This Is Hazelville - Captain

This Is Hazelville was the debut album by London five-piece Captain, produced by Trevor Horn. Opening the album with a tinkling piano and a softly sung title track by Rik Flynn in falsetto mode (not unlike Jon Anderson), it could have been yet another one of those piano-led indie albums so prevalent in the middle of the first decade of the 21st century. But no. First of all, it might have been indie in spirit, but Captain had signed a major-label deal with EMI, and halfway through the first song, Mario Athanasiou's guitar breaks in and it was a rock album after all. The first single to be released was "Frontline" on the truly independent At Large Recordings label; this was followed by the tracks "Glorious" and "Broke," the latter a Prefab Sprout soundalike, both of which made the Top 40, but only just. "Frontline," with its counter singing by Clare Szembek, sounded even more like a throwback to the '80s; it was re-released but didn't set the charts alight the second time around, either. There was an interesting contrast between the two styles of the band in the middle of the album as the light folky track "Build a Life" faded gently into a synth-pop number, "Wax," dominated by Alex Yeoman's playing. ~ Sharon Mawer, All Music Guide