A+E [Explicit]

It sounds trite but... I simply love this album!!! it is smooth, diverse and stylish; there are no (obvious) lingering doubts, remorse or poison-penned prose of times gone by.... this album is a delight from beginning to end and Coxon makes full use of his own abilities as a very skilful guitarist.

Don't get me wrong, I live the dark ballads of "Crow Sit On Blood Tree", the "Sky Is Too High" and "The Kiss Of Morning", but A+E is just so dynamic, so vital and so much fun to listen to. It is a bizarre blend of styles and influences that makes every song unique, every song has it's own texture, it's own presence... Very similar in tempo to "Happiness In Magazines", this album is a very big deal indeed.

Off to listen to it again!!!

Graham Coxon is in a fairly unique position. He's the guitarist for one of the biggest bands of the last twenty years at the same time as being something of an indie-rock, cult hero. A situation not unlike one of Coxons heros, Syd Barrett. I'm a big fan of all of his solo albums and would reccommend any of them if you're new to his stuff (check out the 'Goldan D' for Coxon in full-on punk mode, 'Crow Sit on Blood Tree' for a mix of dark folk and the occational 100mph rock song and 'The Kiss of Morning' for some beautiful heartbreakers)....

His last album, 'The Spinning Top' saw Graham dive head-first into his love of all things Nick Drake and John Martyn; this time couldn't be more different. The acoustic shades of 'The Spinning Top' have been replaced with Grahams trademark electric-guitar wizardry; some tracks definately cover new ground though. 'City Hall' embraces a krautrock influence and feeds it through Grahams punk-pop know-how while 'Running for your Life' is Coxon at his off-the-wall best. The dance-inducing 'What'll it Take' uses repitition to its advatage as Graham repeatedly asks, "what'll it take to make you people dance!?" while 'Knife in the Cast' could be a beautifully strange and lethargic Blur b-side cira the self-titled album. Most of the album is incredibly energetic though; just listen to the aforementioned 'Running for your Life'.

Overall A+E is a noisy, exciting, ridiculous and throughly entertaining listen. His most popular album so far, 'Happiness in Magazines' while undeniably great at times sounded more like a Blur album than a Graham Coxon one but 'A + E' is pure Coxon; eccentric, awkward, kinda angry and kinda cheeky. And that's a very good thing indeed!

The DVD extras are pretty sweet too, the live footage shows what an exciting performer he is and there's some explanations for some of the songs (seems a lot of these one's came from improv's).

By any standards known to man or beast Graham Coxon's new album 'A+E'
is a fine album. These ten songs have a snarling vitality which confirm
their author's position as one of the most inventive and distinctive
musicians to have emerged from English soil in the past two decades
(and this is quintessentially English stuff to the core!) Mr Coxton's
abrasive guitar style and deadpan voice demonstrate a lineage stretching
back to the likes of The Kinks and beyond. It is a joyously energetic affair.

The integration of electonic elements in the compositions occasionally gives
a nod and a wink to our Teutonic cousins and eighties Berlin-Bowie in their
dense, layered structures (Paul Weller's recent dabblings in not dissimilar
territory also comes to mind) but the influences are worn lightly and the album
has a marvelous sense of contemporary validity and coherence from top to tail.

There really isn't a bad egg in the box but if I were forced to choose then
tracks such as 'City Hall', with its infectious pounding backbeat; 'What'll
It Take', a song saturated with juicy bubbling synth lines and a dance-friendly
boots and braces chorus; the darker, grinding industrial beats of 'The Truth'
and the hilarious bluesy post-punk shenanigans of 'Running For Your Life' are
all worthy of special mentions. A mature project from a true master of his craft.

Highly Recommended.