Graham Reid | | 1 min read
Despite the careers of Phil Collins and Dave Grohl –
and Ringo's country music record after the Beatles' break-up – no
one expects much of solo albums by drummers: Peter Criss' was the
worst seller of the Kiss solo releases in 78. Pussycat whiskers
didn't help.
But Radiohead's Selway – one of Neil
Finn's 7 Worlds Collide project – confounds expectation, as his
band always have. First there's no tub-thumping, just moody and
interesting (and deftly orchestrated) singer-songwriter music with
acoustic bassist Sebastian Steinberg, violinist Lisa Germano, Wilco's
Jeff Tweedy and Glenn Kotche (all Colliders) as well as Don McGlashan
and others sympathetic to Selway's Anglofolk-framed songs which reach
from spare Nick Drake to a more lightly touched and slightly
dissonant worldview.
The gorgeous hurt of Broken Promises
goes back to a childhood home when pains have faded and he touches a
universal place for many parents and their children as he seems to
address sisters or brothers: “Let's celebrate the lives that you
made, go to a place where you'll find peace for the very first time”.
This, the engrossing drone of Don't Look Down with its off-kilter piano (“It's like we're on high trapeze . . . what we see in the cold light can scare us all”), and the tone of thoughtful introspection (despite it all, life's probably okay, maybe) make for an album that really is quite something.
You
won't miss the drum solo.
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