If...

The concept album is a brave move that often yields polarising results – just ask Lou Reed & Metallica (actually on second thoughts, don’t) – so kudos to Bill Ryder-Jones, former guitarist with The Coral, for marking his solo debut proper with a musical companion piece to postmodern writer Italo Calvino’s 1979 novel If On A Winters Night A Traveler.

How you feel about If... will largely depend on how you feel about arthouse film scores. While carefully constructed to accompany the written word, it’s difficult not to imagine fantastical worlds collapsing in on themselves on an IMAX screen as many of the arrangements build before your ears. In fact, it’s nigh on impossible not to picture the otherworldly imagery and haunting Clint Mansell-led orchestral soundtrack that beautifully lifted The Fountain, Darren Aronofsky’s unfairly maligned and misunderstood film, while ‘Enlace’ stretches along. That is at least until the completely unneccessary Brian May-style guitar kicks in and ruins everything.

Ryder-Jones has already stated that he wished he cut off this denouement. It’s a tremendous pity that he wasn’t more ruthless, especially as he’s much more interesting when reined in, as evidenced by the excellent ‘Give Me A Name’, on which the Liverpool Philharmonic are perfectly employed to illustrate a marriage of the subtle and grandiose. As ‘Some Absolute End (The End)’ reaches its – and the album’s – conclusion, the sense that Ryder-Jones is only getting started is all too palpable. While there are departures - the lonely guitar of ‘Le Grand Desordre’, the Sigur Rós-aping ‘Leaning (Star Of Sweden)’ – the Wirral native is at his most effective when he hits on the right combination of form and ambition.

As a love letter to one of his favourite works, If… is admirably accomplished. As a debut record in its own right, it’s highly impressive, if not as engaging as you might hope.