Edywyn Collins - Home Again

A welcome return for the magic piper of love

It’s hard not to let a mawkish sentimentality creep in while listening to this album, not to interpret the lyrics in terms of Collins’ brain haemorrhage of two years ago and subsequent convalescence. The task, however, is made a lot easier by the fact that his sixth solo set, recorded before his illness, is really rather blinding. Collins is in fine vocal form on the delicately wounded One Is A Lonely Number, a beautifully produced track that oddly, but successfully, pairs banjo and drum machine. The title track sees Edwyn duetting with himself over gently ambling acoustic guitar, the warm, comfortable result sounding close to newer pretenders to the crooning crown such as Richard Hawley or Jarvis Cocker. Elsewhere Collins effortlessly adopts Frank Blackish punky country on Seventh Son or summery disco soul, harking back to Orange Juice days, on first single You’ll Never Know (soon to find Mr Collins resuming his rightful position all over the airwaves). One Track Mind’s jaunty, folky rhythm gains an added kick from Collins’ unfaltering wry wit: (“In the garden of remembrance, there’s a blackbird singing sweetly/And I guess he’s trying to tell me that I’ve fucked it up completely”). Welcome back, Edwyn.

Heavenly | HVNLP 62 CD

Reviewed by Emily Mackay
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