Graham Coxon: A+E – review

In the three years since Graham Coxon released The Spinning Top, he has reunited on stage and in the studio with Blur, from whom he split somewhat acrimoniously in 2002. Is it more than coincidence that he's abandoned the gentle folk strums of The Spinning Top and kicks off A+E yelping: "I'm pretty much back where I started and it's quite concerning me"? Coxon's wilfully abrasive eighth solo album might bring him full circle, but it also sends him spiralling into thrilling new territory. A+E churns with industrial rhythms and krautrock-influenced basslines that throb menacingly beneath stabbing keyboard riffs, splintered guitars and maniacal burps from a battered saxophone. What'll It Take and The Truth take a drill to the ears – but in the best possible way, because for all their obdurate inaccessibility, what really propels these songs is Coxon's ineffable talent for pop melody. Running for Your Life is particularly glorious: a song about mindless street violence that bounces along with unrestrained joy.