I know how many beans make five, so I know that this must be The Trudy‘s third album, though you’ll need four discs to make the sum work.

A low bell chimes the Dawn, and as the guitars warm themselves up from their slumber, it’s action stations once more. Where The Roses Grow tells of sweet dreamy memories, as a flute tangoes with a twang that’s somewhere between Dwayne Eddy and Link Wray. Much like being a member of The Trudy (it seems, given the credits), it’s a chance to step outside time.

In Dear Sancho, the Spanish Don is telling his squire how much he knows of adventure. It’s a slow build to the chorus, as a gentle guitar swaps the lead with a howling one, but that’s okay, because “hope is always born at the same time as love”, so saddle up and let’s ride.

We’ll never know the exact nature of the sailor’s tale in Every Story Ever Told, as it stays adrift on the breeze and the waves of acoustic and electric guitars. His specific peregrinations become the universal, and you remember that as someone else once sang “everybody’s got a sad story to tell”. Maybe it’s the captain in Ray Bradbury’s And The Sailor, Home From The Sea, or maybe it’s you, the gull flying through Melissa’s pure pop poetry.

Giants Theme floats us on a woozy cloud back over La Mancha, and so on to Pop Pop – a classic bright number from The Trudy’s second-coming era that seems a counterpart to Dirt Cheap Melody’s “a record collection telling lies of love as perfection” line. Driving drums pound, a fizzy bubble hiccups us into the chorus, and pop pop goes your heart.

The record plays out with a lost Shadows lead line over classic indie guitar riffs, which must herald the Arrival of this latest carriage on The Trudy train. All aboard for pop, next stop… well, it’s the journey, not the destination, right? Earphones in, and enjoy yours, fellow travellers!

Outside Time by The Trudy is available as CD MIR 034 and as a digital download, both via bandcamp.