Not content with resting on both his laurels and the plaudits conferred upon him by the likes of naff UK press darlings, Coldplay, Echo & The Bunnymen frontman and founding member Ian McCulloch releases the robust but not entirely remarkable, ‘Slideling’ on April 28th.
Interspersed with some sparkling minor gems: the widescreen, guns-a-blazing opener, ‘Love In Veins’, the gentle, Lennonesque retrospective and consolate celebration of life’s little ironies, ‘Playgrounds and City Parks’, the affectionate single ‘Sliding’ and the sexy and coquettish ‘She Sings’ (All My Life’) – ‘Slideling’ may not go out of its way to please, but neither does it offend.
Still velvety and rich after all these years is the voice, still agile and probing is the mind but whether it’s from the inevitable slide of aging and having very little left to prove, there’s something a little disappointing about the relaxed way the record has been put together – too often relying on semi-retired conventions laid down years ago by the likes of post-genius Lennons and McCartneys and not on the separatist imagination of a true radical.
Fans of the Mac will be just about satisfied with the release, but without the guitar shaping fantasies of long time collaborator, Will Sargeant, it just might not take flight from the bosom of that close but considerable family.