GRAHAM COXON - The Spinning Top

Graham Coxon is by now a familiar face. Without overlooking his pivotal role in Blur (currently on their reunion tour, and if you can still find tickets, don't miss it), he's had a solo career spanning a decade by now ("The Sky Is Too High", his solid solo debut, dates back to 1998), built mainly around a distinctly brit-flavoured pop-rock, with various nods to glam, power-pop and, unfortunately, the mainstream-leaning neo-punk of his last, disappointing, "Love Travels At Illegal Speeds".

Instead, in 2009, Coxon moves out to the countryside and swerves decisively in a completely different direction: "The Spinning Top" is a thoroughly surprising album. It's a concept record (the story of a man from birth to death), played mainly on acoustic guitar, long, pop-folk, distinctly American-sounding, distinctly 60s. "In The Morning", the lead single, is the anthem of this transformation: a sweet, refined ballad where Coxon accompanies himself with fingerpicking in a bucolic crescendo of ethnic percussion and little bells, never losing sight of a melody that keeps the song grounded, far from psychedelic drift and close to the listener's ear.

Of course, Robyn Hitchcock's contribution is very much felt, as in pieces like "Home" or "Perfect Love", two absolutely top-tier tracks; while electric guitar resurfaces, albeit sparingly, on "Humble" and above all on the remarkable "Dead Bees". The resemblance to Simon & Garfunkel on "Sorrow's Army" is striking, even in its themes: a song about war with spare lyrics and driving rhythms, as if it were a Vietnam War protest song unearthed from some archive.

Sure, there are a few rough edges, and while we can forgive his vocal limitations since nature can be unkind, the repetitive dissonances of "Caspian Sea" are entirely gratuitous. Coxon has unfortunately always been a rather heavy-handed songwriter, even though, at the end of the day, he makes pop music. And even this time, listening to the album in full is a rather tiring process, as though, despite his excellent technical skills (he almost comes across as a John Martyn with folk influences in place of blues), he can't quite reach the intensity of Nick Drake or Gary Higgins, by whom he's clearly inspired.

In any case, Coxon had never before written as moving a song as "In This House"; and "If You Want Me" is the perfect synthesis between the old NME-star soul, child of a 90s generation now thoroughly outdated, and this new, mature Graham Coxon, composing alone in his Essex cottage, save for the occasional break from the meditative silence, from this elegy to slowness, in summer, when instead of heading off on a seaside holiday he dusts off his effects pedals and takes the Glastonbury stage with his old band.

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24/05/2009