Giving us something to chew on between the release of their well-received 2002 album A Guide For The Daylight Hours and the forthcoming The Royal Theatre (to be released in 2004), Edinburgh's Ballboy bring us an excursion into the acoustic, substituting their usual full band sound for a more stripped down approach.

Unfortunately, what this means is that almost all of the songs are comprised of only some strumming on an acoustic guitar, with a violin or cello added here and there; and while in places the simplicity of the sound is an asset, overall the record is musically not particularly interesting and it's easy for your attention to drift. Thankfully the lyrical adeptness displayed by Gordon McIntyre on previous albums is, for the most part, maintained here, and there are plenty of lines blah blah blah. Many of the better tracks are poignant laments to lost love, lost sleep and lost youth, at once mournful and holding on for dear life to the last shreds of hope. An exception to this is the title track, "The Sash My Father Wore": a stinging, Billy Bragg-esque dig at small-minded nationalism (the chorus repeats "You're a big, fat, bigoted arsehole"), adding a pleasing outward-looking aspect which most similarly introspective albums sorely lack.

Bravely, or perhaps inadvisably (depending on your view), Ballboy have included three covers on this album; the first, a version of Galaxie 500's "Tell Me", passes by fairly unspectacularly, distinguished only by a vocal drenched in reverb. The second is a much more promising effort in the form of an adjective song about listening to your walkman while watching an ex-lover dancing to Dutch trance music through their window - it is in fact an unreleased track by fellow Edinburgh band Khaya, but sounds like something which might have been written by Ballboy themselves. The third cover is a version of Springsteen's Born In The USA (included in light of recent political events); a little superfluous perhaps, but a nice rendition nonetheless.

If you aren't already familiar with Ballboy, then The Sash My Father Wore And Other Stories is not the best representation of their work (I'd suggest A Guide For The Daylight Hours), but once you look past the slightly repetitive musical setting there are some alluring gems to be found.

-Hannah Wright