For much of the 1990s, Dermot Lambert’s former outfit, Blink, reigned supreme as purveyors of quirky, kaleidoscopic pop, scoring at least one classic Irish album and a brace of hit singles. For his debut solo album, recorded over a fairly lengthy period, with well over a dozen collaborators, he offers a more introspective worldview. He also serves up an impressively eclectic palette of sounds in whast has the feel of a magnum opus.
The album opens on a somewhat surreal note with, ‘Dear Mr Lambert’ – Me & Dr Who’. Over the tapping of a typewriter and an acoustic guitar, it features the voice of a young girl reading an actual letter from the BBC, politely rejecting a story Lambert had submitted for the sci-fi series back in 1975!
From there on, the approach is more conventional: ‘Hey Sean’ is a poignant tribute to his father, with piano and scratchy acoustic guitar, underpinned with string textures and lyrics that hit home: “If I was half the man you showed me how to be, I’d be twice the man I am.” Elsewhere, on a sparkling pop tune such as ‘Love Rainbows’, he blends the kind of sonics usually explored by the likes of Midlake and Wilco on their more adventurous records, while ‘As If God Was Talking’ wouldn’t sound out of place in an eels set-list. Lambert’s fragile vocals on the dissonant ‘Disused Roads’ can make for slightly unsettling listening.
‘(Fades) Into The Morning Sun’ is a mid-tempo guitar tune – part-indie, part-psychedelic with an ethereal backing vocal, while the Lennon-esque ‘Move On’ combines anger and regret over the passing of the years. The album closes with the slow-burning, languid and dreamlike ‘Something That I Said’, a Bowie-esque creation that neatly rounds off this rewarding, if uneven collection.

Key Track: 'Love Rainbows'