Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 13/03/06
Label: Parlophone

You might call him the John Hegley of indie if there were more songs about dogs, rather than underdogs. The former Blur guitarist returns with a sixth solo album of tortured geekiness and raw, punk aesthetic - yet he's jettisoned for good, it would seem, the hard, Shellac-inspired experimentalism of earlier albums in favour of something altogether more palatable.

As with 2004's commercially successful "Happiness in Magazines", production maestro Stephen Street is at hand with whatever the secret formula is he has for turning scruffy indie mules into sleek racehorses - this is, as a result, a cohesive and satisfying listen crammed with generous melodies. One of the country's most envied, copied guitarists, Coxon's trademark thick, chopping-and-slashing chuggery, is joined by slinky surfy-ish melodies and even frilly touches like flugel horns, flutes, harmonicas and organs.

References to The Jam and The Who and plenty of English vernacular (e.g. "We're a right pair, you and I", and "I am bumming you out") prove Coxon's recent cosying up to the Kaiser Chiefs is down to a genuine love of English musical larkiness rather than careerist expedience. (It should be noted at this juncture, however, that Coxon is only 'gor-blimee' when it suits him - "Tell It Like It Is" is all about a woman's positive effect on "mah lahf"). Emotionally he remains as cross, sad, confused and chronically incapable of getting the girl as ever, and there's plenty of room to wallow on an album devoted to the different stages of love from first fancy to final heartbreak.

Fantastically taut first cut "Standing On My Own Again" pits a virtuoso Telecaster work-out against a down-but-not-out melody and lots of pissed-off extended vowels. There's a sexually-thwarted fidgetiness everywhere - a shagging-on-the-beach theme raises its head in both the brilliant "Don't Let Your Man Know", and "Flights To The Sea (Lovely Rain)" while "Gimme Some Love" pleads "Are you gonna dump this other guy before I die of sexual frustration?" A yelping, frothing-at-the-mouth paranoia, meanwhile, colours "I Don't Wanna Go Out" and "You Always Let Me Down".

Sometimes the combination of rattling, high pitched guitar, percussion and voice takes on the ear-terrorising nature of a buzzing fly, making lower, more nuanced songs like the Burt Bacharach-like "Just A State Of Mind" and dreamlike "Don't Believe Anything I Say" come as a relief. Most fun - yes, fun - of all is "What's He Got?" a hugely likeable and peppy slice of '60s-inpired girlfriend-coveting with such a wide, classic feel it puts to rest any niggling doubts he might be little more than a screwed-up whiner who needs to get laid.

    by Anna Britten