GLENN TILBROOK AND THE FLUFFERS - Pandemonium Ensues

In the ceaseless quest for the perfect alchemy, pop music over the last twenty years has surrendered its purity to the twists and turns of contamination and provocation, as if the only justification for its existence lay in belonging to a global culture; small everyday stories were taboo, while love and passion belonged to the MTV generation.

I have always persevered in my devotion to the craftsmen of pop, those who married the purity of soul with the language of the working-class, well aware that social struggle had given way to cultural disorientation. It was white-pop-soul that refused to grow up (as with Sade, Style Council), and equally refused to corrupt its own naivety with erudite social content (the Redskins, Manic Street Preachers).

The choice of Xtc, Squeeze and Nick Lowe as the sole true architects of pure pop has been borne out by their consistency: Squeeze in particular, after a couple of albums prone to contamination (Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti and Babylon And On), took a step back, embracing the idea of a pop music detached from the present day and making records that smelled ever more of retro and fared ever less well in the charts.

Unlike Xtc (unquestionable masters of pop), Difford and Tilbrook's band favored the more pleasurable side of the Beatles (not the wonderfully schizophrenic side chosen by Andy), grafting onto it a love of soul and rhythm and blues.

After Chris Difford's delicate solo album, now it's Glenn Tilbrook's turn: on this third solo album, he's backed by an actual band, The Fluffers, which lends a cohesion that was missing from the previous two records. Otherwise, the songs boast a remarkable stylistic variety. Pure fun, between playfully rock'n'roll rhythms, flashes of black music and Beatles served sweet-and-sour: what Glenn achieves is the miracle of pop music with no shame about itself: anyone capable of writing a song built around an accordion is either a madman or a genius, and with "Best Of Time" Glenn confirms his gift as a songwriter.

All the songs possess rhythm and frivolity, which may irritate fans of indie-pop (ever more melancholic and sexless) and which prompt scandalous comparisons (E.L.O. on "Relentless Pursuit"), but they guarantee a set of varied, joyful songs, now rare in the output of today's gloomy, glossy songwriters.

The vigorous beat of "She Makes Me" is infectious, all rock'n'roll guitars and flashes of moog; by contrast, "Happy Disposition" honours the eccentric harmonic dissonances that characterised the debut produced by John Cale, with an unsettling string arrangement.

On two tracks Glenn achieves harmonic perfection while retaining the lightness of the best soul-pop songs: the first, "Still", is one of the finest white transfigurations of the Motown sound, strings without emphasis and a sensual soul worthy of early Marvin Gaye; "Black Sheep" too lingers over the cheeky sensuality of rhythm & blues and soul with its unstoppable "baa baa ba baa baa" and its flavour of a black vocal group.

As in every perfect pop album, there's no shortage of more introspective ballads: "Little Ships" soothes the soul with class, while "Interest & Love" slides towards a more mainstream sound, perhaps partly due to the presence of Vanessa Paradis.

Glenn doesn't neglect rock'n'roll's more nervous impulses on the frenzied "Slaughtered Artist", with its Little Richard-style piano, and celebrates mod music and the pop of the Kinks on "Through The Net" and "Bachland Ballroom".

Of the remaining tracks, only "Melancholy Emotion" shows no particular distinction; the exotic "Product", however, is a surprise, its soap-opera romanticism nicely underlined by the only vocal performance from the charming Lucy Shaw. The album's closer, "Too Close To The Sun", confirms all the qualities mentioned at the outset: an instrumental halfway between spaghetti-western and porno-soft, with Johnny Depp (yes, him) as spoken voice.

The bizarre humour Glenn displays makes the album a true dividing line between chart-friendly pop and the melancholic world of Smiths clones.

"Pandemonium Ensues" is one of the most brilliant and irreverent pop albums of the last decade; Glenn has rediscovered the spirit of early Squeeze, and his music is lovable or detestable without compromise. Only the greats can afford such stylistic independence. Paraphrasing the title of Nick Lowe's masterpiece, one might as well rename it "Pure Pop For Everytime People".

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28/03/2009