While he's best known as a drummer, Philip Selway has gone and released a solo record that contains little percussion, and certainly precious little percussion from the artist himself. Much like another Britpop-era drummer who's gone it alone, Selway's chosen instead to focus on texture rather than beats. Strange Dance, out now via Bella Union is a somewhat engaging offering on unique terms from the Radiohead drummer.
"Little Things" is a gorgeous opener, building to a swell of epic strings, while "The Heart of It All" takes a similar approach, unfurling over a hook that's a bit Oasis-y. Selway is in command on stuff like this, large parts of which sound like OK Compuer and Kid A tracks without the blips and bleeps. However, not every cut here is as strong. I mean, don't call a selection with barely any energy "Check for Signs of Life", you know? Still, "What Keeps You Awake at Night" has a nice texture to it, and "Picking Up Pieces" is moderately engaging and peppy in its own way.
The production by Marta Salogni is the star here, not the Radiohead drummer. His vocals are not distinctive enough to be necessary at all, frankly, and where Strange Dance works, it's down to the soaring strings and ebbs-and-flows of tension along those. If this album had been a song or two shorter, I'd likely be raving about it in stronger terms. As it is, portions of this were excellent, and those portions deserve a bit of enthusiasm from me and likely will from readers of this site too.
Strange Dance by Philip Selway is out now via Bella Union.
[Photo: Phil Sharp]