Claude says:Peter Wilson, the Belfast pianist and theatrical songwriter behind Duke Special, built his vaudeville-tinged sound after apprenticing with Brian Houston and assembling a troupe of collaborators who play cheese graters and transistor radios alongside the usual instruments. This 2008 album leans into his baroque pop romanticism with sweeping piano arrangements and warm, accented vocals that feel both grand and intimate. You grabbed it within a year of release in early 2009 and cycled through the whole tracklist hard that March — "If I Don't Feel It" and "Diggin' An Early Grave" got the most attention — before one last spin over a year later and then letting it fade.