Spinning

It would have been too easy for Graham Coxon to settle into the pop groove he established with his excellent albums Happiness in Magazines and Love Travels at Illegal Speeds, and Coxon has never been one for taking things easy. Ever since he pushed Blur away from Brit-pop and into indie, Coxon has eagerly, earnestly explored new directions, and so it is with his seventh album, The Spinning Top, a loose song cycle that finds the singer/songwriter indulging in a new desire to be a British folk singer in the vein of Bert Jansch.

Recorded with Edwyn Collins at his AED Studios, and at Green Door Studio (the recording centre for the new wave of Glasgow artists) with Stu Evans, Permo is an album of bold steps and simple gestures, coming from a group who have found, seemingly effortlessly, a confident, unpretentious and egalitarian way of working together. Spinning Coin's two songwriters - Sean Armstrong and Jack Mellin - oscillate taking centre stage on a song; Armstrong's more melancholic melodies contrasting with Mellin's urgent refrains.