Doctor Syntax - Edwyn Collins
Edwyn Collins is one of pop music's nice guys, a solid second-division player that typifies the virtues of consistency and reliability while occasionally displaying flashes of brilliance
Stephen Robinson
I’ve been putting this off, quite frankly. Edwyn Collins is one of pop music’s nice guys, a solid second-division player that typifies the virtues of consistency and reliability while occasionally displaying flashes of brilliance, as on ‘Rip It Up’ from the glorious ‘80s and ‘Never Known A Girl Like You Before’ from the ‘90s.
Opener ‘Never Felt Like This’ is a slightly somnambulistic outing that never really gets out of first gear despite, and not because of Collins’ molasses vocal, while ‘Should’ve Done That’ would be perfectly at home on a Prince album circa Diamonds And Pearls.
‘Mine Is At’ more successfully marries his vocal with a wonderful guitar line that gradually achieves baroque status and also evidences his fine talent for wry lyrics: “See my lifestyle ain’t changing, I’m just takin’ more risks/That’s remarkably easy, when you’re remarkably pissed…”
‘The Beatles’ is a history of that band in four minutes, complete with Sgt. Pepper steals and some more razor sharp lyrics: “Let’s hear it for the fifth Beatle/Let’s hear it for the gay Beatle/Let’s hear it for the drugged Beatle/The ‘All You Need Is Love’ Beatle”.
Other highlights include the gentle ‘Splitting Up’ and the fake-funk workout that is ’20 Years Too Late’, yet ultimately I’m left dissatisfied by this.
It’s a shame, since Edwyn Collins is tantalisingly close on more than one occasion here to matching the best of his previous work.
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