Album Review: Philip Selway, Let Me Go - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Radiohead's Philip Selway certainly does a lot more than hang around with other musicians. The Oxford man is one of the most intriguing modern tub-thumpers in the game. Even when he was on the road with one of the most revered and popular bands in the world, he found time to volunteer at a Samaritans branch in Oxford on a regular basis.

Of course, the strike rate for Radiohead's extracurricular musical projects has remained impressively high. Selway has already authored two solo albums, Familial (2010) and Weatherhouse (2014), which proved Thom Yorke and Ed O'Brien aren't the only two singers in Radiohead. Jonny Greenwood, meanwhile, is no longer the only soundtrack composer in the band either.

Greenwood, of course, was thrown bouqets of compliments and award nominations for his spine-tingling score for There Will Be Blood. Now, Selway has created the soundtrack for Polly Steele's Let Me Go, based on the true story of Helga Schneider, who was abandoned by her parents in 1941.

Selway's songs to date have been primarily acoustic-based tracks in the mould of Nick Drake, but this is a much more expansive project. Strings and piano combine beautifully to create an atmospheric and evocative soundtrack, which bodes exceedingly well for the movie. The erstwhile sticksman still sings on warm-sounding tunes like 'Wide Open', though standout number 'Walk' features the gorgeous voice of Lamb's Lou Rhodes.

This is Selway's most complete and diverse record yet; the moral of the story is to never, ever tell cliched jokes about drummers again.

7/10
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