BONE GUARDIAN REVIEW

The Old Rock Stars' Home that is Sanctuary Records has a new resident in the former James singer, and on his first solo album he manages to put most of the other inmates to shame.

Though still the right-on navel-gazer, he has set his self-absorbed lyrics to fresh new sounds and textures. Once past the James-style balladic pomp of Wave Hello and Down to the Sea (which contains the typically Boothian lament "My head's full of self-pity and noise"), the album opens out into a diverse collection of dance-charged styles.

Redneck (inspired by famous friends who didn't return his calls) is surprisingly infectious in its melding of electronica and Bollywood, and about as far from Jamesiness as the suggestive Love Hard, a truly lovely piece of Air-like loungedelica that's only spoiled by a ludicrous falsetto interlude. Booth even has a go at a drawling version of rapping on In the Darkness, which pulses into a big New Orderish electro-guitar showdown. All of which proves that you can teach an old romantic new tricks.