RACE HORSES - 2013

What can someone like Meilyr Jones do in Rome, if not put out a record like this "2013", named after the very year it describes? Sometimes it really takes someone else to explain who you are before you can understand it yourself: and that's exactly what emerges from this dazzling solo debut by the former frontman of Race Horses, caught up in the most classic of grand tours, the Englishman in Italy, struck by art and, in part, by life itself, to which he responds with irreverent reverence, in a genuine awakening of the senses - not just the artistic ones.

And "2013" has everything a "classic" needs — it's one of this year's true instant classics, a compendium of many of the great British singer-songwriters and artists, George Harrison, Elvis Costello, David Bowie, Morrissey, Neil Hannon and so on.

Swagger and class come together in an unmistakable mix on the power-pop masquerade of "How to Recognise a Work of Art", or in the harmonic shifts of "Don Juan", which moves from an elegant dulcimer ballad, with gentle Morricone-esque openings, to pounding synth-rock, listener's comfort be damned. Rock and pop, orchestra and electric instruments, indie and mainstream find in "2013" the balance of a great classic — precisely as the result, though, of an extreme sense of freedom, nurtured by Meilyr in the year his band and his girlfriend had both left him, when he found himself alone in his room in Rome ("Strange Emotional").

The baroque flourishes of Roman vistas seem to echo in the flamboyant ups and downs of "Olivia", or in the courtier disguises of the inspired, brilliant Renaissance arrangement of "Rome", with Meilyr's songwriting not shying away from the odd flourish worthy of Clementine ("Passionate Friend", "Refugees"), even within its thoroughly classical melodic framework.

But it's precisely the Welshman's histrionic ability to play with interpretation that reveals the true measure of this record's worth, from the melodies to the arrangements: even a more conventional track like "Featured Artist" contains memorable moments — Meilyr's falsetto highs, the interplay of horns, the apotheosis of strings at the close (and, why not, the outro of a poetry recitation in Italian).

At times the musical framework may even outgrow Jones's vocal abilities (the blazing, commanding orchestral adventure of "Return To Life"), but the extraordinary nature of "2013" also lies in the transfiguration of one of many minor artists into a genuine pop star — just to confirm where one ought to look for contemporary classics.

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18/03/2016