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Graham Coxon - The Spinning Top
Reviewed
by
NME
Waiting on a Blur
reunion? Nah, the guitarist was too busy making his best solo album
 At
some point in early 2008, before the first reconciliation
curry was scoffed and the concept of a new Blur gig ticket
seemed as likely as Calvin Harris eating a Solero without
Tweeting about it, Graham Coxon sat in his Camden home,
dug his fingers into his armrests and felt a monsoon of
jealousy crash over him.
Why? Did he fear that however hard he tried, he’d never be
able to perfect the stench of a home-made Stilton? Never
gain a work-experience placement in a City law firm? Never
design a team of cartoons named things like Noodle?
Nah. Far from being green-eyed about anything his
soon-to-be-bandmates-again were up to, Coxon was listening
awestruck to the records of ’60s guitar pioneer Davey
Graham, the late Brit musician whose finger-picking was so
impressive that today he’d insure his right forefinger for
a sum that’d make The Pirate Bay court fine seem like
change in a tramp’s pocket. Being a proactive chap, rather
than waste time envying, Coxon picked up his guitar and
taught himself how to damn well do it. So, what’s
surprising about ‘The Spinning Top’ is that despite it
being an album essentially born of a man learning a new
guitar technique, it’s arguably the most consistently fine
album of his prolific solo career.
More kickin’ back than ‘Freakin’ Out’, with lyrics that
form a narrative about a man’s life from birth to death,
album opener ‘Look Into The Light’ provides the perfect
Christening. Coming on like a cross-legged Nick Drake,
it’s a pure folk sweetness offering that could land in the
middle of ‘Bryter Layter’. ‘This House’ boasts an equally
enjoyable acoustic lurch, and ‘In The Morning’ is a
butterfly-catching, understated burst of hippy-pop
bedecked with tambourine shakes and Coxon’s gentle coo.
Considering that the first part of the album is such a
well-realised homage to dusty folk, it’ll be a surprising
delight for Blur fans to hear later songs ‘Dead Bees’
(slab-shifting Coxo crunches), ‘If You Want Me’
(screwy’n’dark Britpop guitar lines) and ‘Humble Man’
(irresistably catchy chords), which are acoustified
cousins to ‘Beetlebum’, ‘The Great Escape’ and ‘Coffee &
TV’ respectively.
It’s sickeningly impressive. Yes, Coxon’s stormed through
the Davey Graham Advanced Finger-Picking Guide but
he hasn’t forgotten to flip it over and write some of his
best ever songs. Kind of makes you jealous…
DOWNLOAD: 1) ‘In The
Morning’, 2) ‘Sorrow's Army’, 3) ‘Humble Man’
8/10 Jamie
Fullerton
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