A beautifully tender, reflective 10th indie pop solo album by the acclaimed Scottish singer-songwriter and former Orange Juice frontman, with strong, resonant indie numbers on life’s circularity, love, home, health and belonging. He continues to have speech and physical impediments resulting from his debilitating 2005 cerebral haemorrhage, there’s even subtle, dry humoured reference to this on opener Knowledge – “Knowledge is a friend of mine / First was lost and now it’s found … still it’s hard to pin it down,” – and on the title track – “Back when the words came easily/ I had the answer to everything.” But his rich, baritone singing voice and songwriting skills are undiminished, especially on the A GIrl Like You –reminiscent The Heart Is A Foolish Little Thing, the country twang and swaggering saxophone of Strange Old World, the gentle, poetic Paper Planes, or the love song The Mountains Are My Home, in part pertaining to his home and studio in Helmsdale in north Scotland (and on The Bridge Hotel), which has a sense of an ending – “It’s time to go.” On that note, let us hope that while this year sees a farewell tour, this does mean a goodbye in terms of releasing music or in any other way. Rhythm Is My Own World rounds off the album with a warm, crooning bossa nova embrace. Out on his label AED Records.
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