Doctor Syntax - Edwyn Collins

I’ve been putting this off, quite frankly. Edwyn Collins is one of pop music’s nice guys, a solid second-division player that typifies the virtues of consistency and reliability while occasionally displaying flashes of brilliance, as on ‘Rip It Up’ from the glorious ‘80s and ‘Never Known A Girl Like You Before’ from the ‘90s.

Opener ‘Never Felt Like This’ is a slightly somnambulistic outing that never really gets out of first gear despite, and not because of Collins’ molasses vocal, while ‘Should’ve Done That’ would be perfectly at home on a Prince album circa Diamonds And Pearls.

‘Mine Is At’ more successfully marries his vocal with a wonderful guitar line that gradually achieves baroque status and also evidences his fine talent for wry lyrics: “See my lifestyle ain’t changing, I’m just takin’ more risks/That’s remarkably easy, when you’re remarkably pissed…”

‘The Beatles’ is a history of that band in four minutes, complete with Sgt. Pepper steals and some more razor sharp lyrics: “Let’s hear it for the fifth Beatle/Let’s hear it for the gay Beatle/Let’s hear it for the drugged Beatle/The ‘All You Need Is Love’ Beatle”.

Other highlights include the gentle ‘Splitting Up’ and the fake-funk workout that is ’20 Years Too Late’, yet ultimately I’m left dissatisfied by this.

It’s a shame, since Edwyn Collins is tantalisingly close on more than one occasion here to matching the best of his previous work.