Album Review: Badhands, Predictable Boy

Having been a musician and songwriter for years with the likes of The Mighty Stef, The Last Tycoons, and Maud In Cahoots, it's no surprise the first solo record from Dan Fitzpatrick, AKA Badhands, is so accomplished.

Effectively blending indie rock and folk, there is a distinctive feel to Predictable Boy. The piano-driven glam rock of 'Only One for Me' and 'Lost In A Dream' evoke Sunny Afternoon-era The Kinks, while ode to laziness 'Monday Morning' has echoes of The Strokes and The Walkmen. The darkly seductive 'Let Me In', meanwhile, feels very Nick Cave-ish.

The album is also notably personal: the gorgeously bittersweet 'Waves' was inspired by the singer scattering his father's ashes. Elsewhere, 'Like A Man' is a melancholic ballad about the quest to find a soulmate, with Fitzpatrick crooning: "Oh I want you madly but it's getting hard to take/ But I'll take it if I can, I'll take it like a man."

The closing number, 'Song 1', returns to the same subject matter, albeit with a more optimisic outlook; though he acknowledges he needs "a little loving", the singer now realises that pining is unhealthy. It's a nice narrative touch that gives the album a real sense of cohesion.

"I never had the desire to play solo until all my bands started splitting up," Fitzpatrick joked in Hot Press last year. Predictable Boy is proof that every cloud has a silver lining.

Out 17 November.

9/10