The Kundalini Target [CD]

Is love, and this great album is full of it, great melodies, superb guitar playining, amazing ''retro'' voice...this album is SUPERB, much more than i could expect...is far better from the last OCS albums...buy it, and ignore stupid people who give only a star to this...if you love great british music, this album is for you, it will probably be the best album of 2009, trust me....you'll be happy...

Steve Cradock has of course been Paul Weller's right hand man for over 16 years now, and has been responsible for some of the most exciting guitar work on Weller's albums. He's been given more room on Ocean Colour Scene to spread his wings, and it's now great to have him finally releasing his own solo album.

This album isn't such a surprise in terms of the musical styles and palettes that Steve Cradock draws from - classic sixties influences, that are also deep in the veins of Weller's - Who, Kinks, Beatles. What is surprising though, is just how superb these songs are. No over-estimation to say they're as strong as the classics they were influenced by.

Another revelation is Cradock's voice - strong, passionate and expressive. He sounds at times like a mid sixties Roger Daltrey, at others like a Graham Nash in Hollies mode, also shades of Smokey Robinson influenced Beatles with Still Trying. There's also a lot of Paul Weller in here, almost like a parallel universe Jam / Weller album at times - it's hard of course to fully understand how integral Cradock's contribution is when he writes and records with Weller. Judging from this album, he's both absorbed plenty of Weller's genius, and has his own in no small measure.

The album kicks off with a cover - the wonderful Something Better, made famous by Marianne Faithful on the Stones Rock and Roll Circus in 1968 - you can check out her version on youtube. Cradock has wisely stuck with the same arrangement, even using the mournful oboe of the original. He adds a little more definition on the chord structures and contributes a fantastic vocal.

From here on in, all the tunes are written by Cradock himself.

The Apple is an opener proper, with a solid chorus that sounds a bit like The Kids are Alright, and a warm personal sentiment about his lovely children.

Many of the songs get in your head fairly quickly, after only one or two listens, but they then draw you in more and more deeply with each listen, until it dawns on you that this really is a classic album - one that you have to play from start to finish each time.

I adore every song on this album - it covers as many musical touchstones as World Party's classic Goodbye Jumbo, which also managed to invoke inspiration from Stones, Beatles, Kinks and Motown, but delivered something as good as the originals. But there are a couple of slower burning gems that have become my current favourites - Ask the Sound, which is related to Weller's Where'er Ye Go from 22 Dreams - symphonic and elemental, with simple lyrics delivered like tablets of stone. And secondly, Still Trying, which is like early Beatles on Smokey Robinson.

But there's not a duff track - Running Away has a soaring chorus that Simon & Garfunkel would have been happy with. The Clothes they Stood up In has a lovely jazzy early Style Council feel to it, a bit Wild Blue Yonder, and a delightful refrain of 'all the things you have lost you will find', echoing around your head like it's lost in a very large washing machine.

Needless to say the production and playing throughout is faultless.

This album deserves to reach a wide audience. I'd be happy if everyone who buys Paul Weller's albums and took 22 Dreams to Number 1, also invested in this gem. They'd be happy too, when they heard it, and so would Steve Cradock I'm sure!

It would have been nifty to have tied some of these tracks in with the soundtrack of Richard Curtis' film The Boat that Rocked. In addition to a great original sixties selection of songs, I noticed Duffy recorded a new song - several of these songs should have also been included. They would have fitted perfectly, and they would have brought this wonder to a bigger audience!

this is a decent album for Mr Craddock's first solo effort. There are 4 or 5 really good tunes, particularly the excellent The Apple and Beware of Falling Rocks. Steve's warm personality shows through on this album. Anybody expecting a regurgitation of OCS tunes will be disappointed. Perhaps he should contribute some of his songwriting abilities on future OCS albums....