TIM BOOTH : BONE NME REVIEW

3/10 

Speak of the Devil. Manchester's hippy priest returns. 

The current vogue for mushrooms is all well and good, but over-indulge and you could end up like Tim Booth. As frontman of James, Booth was the snake-hipped baggy mystic who sold a million 'Best Of...' albums to students in tye-dye. Ever since James' split, Booth's drifted on the universe's currents and, finally, he's sent back 'Bone' - a solo LP so embarrassingly smug, it transcends all natural physical laws.

Booth's still got the voice, and the title track makes a fair fist of aping Beck at his most goofy. But judging by 'Monkey God', a bongo epic that's not so much eccentric as full-on David Icke's turquoise tracksuit bonkers, his umbilical cord to the concept of the Good Pop Chorus have been irreparably severed. "God in man/Man from ape/everything's connected" wibbles Booth, a wave of Ravey Davey synths bathing him in the cosmic soup of spiritual oneness. Sounds like Booth's found his place, which is fine - just so long as it's far from our stereo.