After years among a dozen other musicians in Britpop band My Life Story, singer Jake Shillingford has taken a stripped-down approach on Written Large, his first solo album.
The electric guitars, drums and booming brass section have been shelved in favour of piano, acoustic guitar and a small helping of strings.
This emphasises Shillingford's voice, which is somewhere in between Martin Rossiter from Gene and Marc Almond.
Claret is a standout track; its strings and mentions of vineyards give the song an upper class feel.
Butterfly Wings, the opening track, and Hurt You set the tone for the record, piano based and dramatic.
Claret is a standout track, with the strings and mentions of vineyards giving the song an upper class feel to it.
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It is a track which would not sound out of place on the past two Divine Comedy albums, Absent Friends and Victory For The Comic Muse.
While fans of My Life Story will be interested to hear Shillingford's next project, they may be disappointed when looking at the track listing.
A lot of the songs have previously been recorded for My Life Story or Shillingford's other project, ExileInside.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, as songs such as You Can't Uneat The Apple and Neverland are among the best Shillingford has done, but I am sure his fans would have hoped for more new material.
Written Large, funded by a collection of fans known as The Investor Angels, may struggle to gain attention among the large number of singer/songwriters currently populating the singles and album charts.
Shillingford and The Investor Angels may have to hope for word-of-mouth success.
If you like your music stripped down, with plenty of drama the chances are you will like this album.
If you like your music stripped down, with plenty of drama, and you appreciate Divine Comedy, Gene, Marc Almond, Morrissey and Duke Special, the chances are you will like this album.
But if you are new to Shillingford's voice, I would investigate My Life Story's best of album, Sex & Violins.
If you like that album, then I would move on to this one.
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