Paddy Goes to Holyhead's fifth album E&OE is an excellent followup to their impressive 1994 recording Ready for Paddy?. Both recordings are loaded with sparkling melodies surrounded by intelligent lyrics and skillful instrumentation. On this release, however, there seems to be a concentrated effort toward producing sophisticated pop songs as opposed to the overt folk-rock angle of their previous records. Perhaps the major label (EMI) influence figured into this modification, but the album as a whole is equally as satisfying as their previous offering. Singer Harald Schmidt's incisive writing hasn't suffered, nor has the electrifying playing of fiddler Almut Ritter, who also contributed substantially to the music's composition. "Gypsies' Wedding Day" receives a gypsy fiddle application reminiscent of 1994's "Johnny Went to the War," and the fiddle line in "Whiskey for the Roadies" has a Celtic sound so the folksy influences aren't totally absent. The talents of the rhythm section of Andi Kopp (bass) and Kalle Spriestersbach (drums) are particularly evident on the uptempo numbers like "Wedding Day" and "The Rhythm." The glossy production by Ritter and Axel Henninger may have downplayed the folk influences that this band normally uses, but it also magnified their strengths, which are numerous.