Volume

Music for the new man. Mike Badger trades in lo-fi acoustic musings for the broken hearted. Founder member of The La's, Badger's music is low key and unassuming, in a way that suggests his bedtime listening is more Sonny Condell and Blue Nile than Henry Rollins and Tommy Lee Jones.

Volume is a fine solo debut, if it's pensive, soulful songs you're after. Produced by Paul Hemmings of the Lightning Seeds, and featuring guest vocals from Tommy Scott from Space and piano and organ from Henry Priestman (remember The Christians?), it's a tentative, considered affair that lets Badger spread his artistic wings and paint aural landscapes all of his own, without suffering from any of the ponderous excesses that so many solo debuts engage in.

'Where Love Is' is a butterfly's wing of an opening track. Badger's vocals conjure pastoral images reminiscent of Nick Drake in his Bryter Later days. Acoustic guitar drives the song, (at a leisurely Sunday afternoon pace) and Badger sets the scene for a dozen like-minded tracks.

'Piano Sativa' and 'Twilight In D' allow for a little more light to permeate the album, courtesy of the pianos of both Priestman and Badger. These are slight enough affairs, simple in construction, and loping in pace, but entirely in keeping with the overall mood of Volume.

'Poverty Of The Heart' is a songwriterly ode to the naked purity of love, that'd have sat as easily on Carole King's Tapestry or James Taylor's Sweet Baby James. Hammocked by cello and intricate chord sequences, this is a song that cries out for a place on a soundtrack, its images a perfect backdrop to a domestic drama. Perhaps with Sissy Spacek.

And so Volume progresses, melody and lyrics intertwined effortlessly, langorously. If the subject matter sometimes bespeaks of egocentricism, or the mood insists on remaining muted, it's but a mark of Badger's low key ambitions. In fact it's probably safe to hazard that he is not a man aiming for heavy rotation on MTV. Definitely not listening material to shake the senses into action. More a bathtime companion, if anything. Augers exceedingly well for his solo shows, should he chance to come our way.