Alex T, Noel G and Graham C are among those who have gusted praise towards former [a]The Coral[/a] guitarist [a]Bill Ryder-Jones[/a], who’s been hailed the best British guitarist of his generation. So it’s a surprise of sorts to see him emerge after four years in the Wirral wilderness with a largely guitar-free, mainly instrumental solo album that’s stylistically closer to The Snowman soundtrack than the early Scouse-psych of his old gang. Still, he wields the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra as deftly as he did his spliff-stained six-string – you can’t help thinking that if he’d never left [a]The Coral[/a] they’d have made their ‘Ladies And Gentlemen…’ rather than their ‘The La’s’ (again) for the last outing.
Jamie Fullerton