graham coxon - love travels at illegal speeds
summary : if you liked grahams previous album, 'happiness in magazines', then you will love this new album.
more detail : basically since graham has kicked the wicked drink, become a gushing dad, and generally done that thing most of wish we could do, ie grow up, he has become one of the best purveyors of spiky guitar pop, writing songs that are accessible and enjoyable for all. following the blueprint of the previous album to the letter, same producer (stephen street), same style of songs (fast-n-poppy, slow-n-lovely), same graham coxon art, same everything. of course the songs are sheer excellence. so it should come as no surprise that there is no world music experimentation going on here, graham knows his world and is very comfortable within it.
as any sane person would want from an album by graham in 2006, we get a fair few of the updated buzzcock manic pop thrills (a la first single, 'standing on my own again'), a couple of the late at night lustful demands, alongside genuinely gorgeous proper pop, when the acoustic guitars of the ray davies styled, 'just a state of mind' introduces far away vocal harmonies, a lonesome trumpet line and some delicate vocal psychedelic phasing, then you cannot help but recall his past glories with his old band.
the fact that graham is now mid thirties and still singing songs as if he were a hormonally pumped up teenager, indicates he is in booze free catch up mode, he has the new found vocal confidence, the talent and now the songs to back up the urge to spread his art about. more importantly though, these songs are full to the brim with hooks, saucy postcard humour and downright open honesty which by the 4th listen will have you pogo'ing around your living room or any such live venue should you be so lucky to catch graham on tour.
of course, the blueprint is dominated by simple and basic riffed up guitar pop music, but fuck it, i love it.