Amazon.co.uk Review
With one of his ex-bandmates currently exploring the delights of retro-Hammond-organ pop under the moniker of the Clint Boon Experience, former
Inspiral Carpets frontman Tom Hingley has opted for the simplest approach possible--just acoustic guitar and voice--on his debut solo album. It's a bold move because with no musical arrangement and no production tricks to hide behind, the songs are about as exposed as they can be. Curiously, for a Mancunian so closely identified with the early 90s indie/baggy scene, Hingley now sounds like Paul Weller might if he had been born somewhere out beyond Route 66. This would be alarming indeed, if not for the fact that his songs too have moved on stylistically so that they match his new vocal mannerisms. Where the lyrical content of Inspiral Carpets songs was often hard to grasp, these songs are admirably direct and simple, mostly dealing with the eternal verities of male-female relationships that have inspired songwriters down the ages. Hingley isn't doing anything new, but there's an increased maturity in his writing and a dramatic improvement in his singing that suggests he can thrive as a solo artist if his former band's fans have grown up along with him.
--Johnny Black