 The signs point to The Kiss of Morning being a complete disaster. Already prone to putting out patchy solo offerings - see The Golden D - this fourth Coxon CD arrives only a couple of weeks after his ejection from Blur due to what has been described as a mental breakdown. Coxon states, "I realise that I've been an arsehole for a long, long time." You can see why we weren't exactly looking forward to listening to this one.
A sound of a lone acoustic guitar introduces Bitter Tears, and it's the musical equivalent of someone trying to put their life back together. Two and a half minutes into the track, when the tempo picks up and the backing instrumentation kicks in, you realise that Coxon's been playing to the gallery . . . and to think I was feeling sorry for him!
Escape Song is just the kind of angular lo-fi that Cable used to do so well, and it's been paired with the later Mountain Of Regret as a single release. Potential singles might be a bit thin on the ground here, but good tunes aren't, as the lazy blues swagger of Locked Doors testifies. Once again the style has changed completely, but in the context of the album it all fits perfectly.
Baby, You're Out Of Your Mind is Green Day's Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) performed by Pavement, while Do What You're Told To is eight tenths of a distortion fuelled freak out. "Even though you're pretty, you're looking pretty shitty," Coxon repeats. Complete lyrical bollocks of course, but it fits the song so well that it's easy to forgive. At the moment Graham Coxon is a sitting target, and it would be very easy to dismiss this CD without taking the time to get to know it. The Kiss Of Morning has obviously had a lot of thought and effort put into it, and manages to be experimental without alienating. It takes talent to put together something like this. Let's just see how Blur do without him. :: Rowan Shaeffer |
