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.