BONE : THE SCOTSMAN REVIEW

Although this album bears his name, ex-James frontman Tim Booth is at pains to stress that Bone is a collaborative effort, made by "accident" with a group of musicians he has met in the last year. Now that it’s done and dusted, it feels inevitable that the charismatic but also nigglingly precious Booth would be back. Bone has less of the pomp and circumstance of James but is still a vehicle for his ongoing quasi-hippie philosophising. Monkeygod considers, literally, life, the universe and everything, while the title track is a jumbled meditation on what we do with this life, both unfolding over propulsive, percussive backing. He also tackles more primal urges on the stalkerish In The Darkness ("my silent thoughts can’t penetrate your iPod with my foreplay" indeed) and the lyrically flowery but sweetly seductive Fall In Love. Interesting enough, like looking at photos of someone else’s baby.