REVIEW: Graham Coxon, The Sky is Too High (Transcopic/Caroline)
- Robin Lapid
With his own label, Transcopic, and his first solo album, Blur guitarist Graham Coxon flies hyperspeed into the direction he nudged Blur toward on their eponymous fifth album. On The Sky Is Too High , he walks a tight-rope between plaintive sad songs a la Nick Drake and Sonic Youth-style punk guitars that drift from sparse and moody to dissonant and jarring. He anchors it all with shy, barely post-pubescent vocals and a personality that screams and whispers at the same time.
The first track, "That's All I Wanna Do," starts off with Coxon's soft voice cradling a gentle melody. Even when the acoustic guitar erupts into a guttural and melancholy electric wash, the refrain lingers, faintly redolent of a Blur pop hook. But for the most part, Coxon abandons himself to the music in his head. "R U Lonely" is a quiet number set adrift in acoustic guitar. It runs smoothly into "I Wish," which begins with acoustic strumming that suddenly fractures into distortion-heavy discord. When Coxon isn't expressing his anger or despondency in words, the guitar explodes and sings for him.
The album -- which Coxon wrote and performed by himself -- was recorded during an alcohol-free period of teetotalism. The purging mood is evident with lyrics such as 'In the daylight hours/ I go out and kill the flowers.' On "Who the Fuck?" (a song reminiscent of Pavement's "Conduit For Sale"), furiously reckless punk guitar and the cathartic 'Who the fuck you looking at?!' refrain break up a barrage of garbled spoken-word lyrics.
Coxon makes subtle hints at the kind of infectious lo-fi melodies on Blur's "You're So Great," although his solo album is more bitter-sad than bittersweet. The Blur track, seared with a naked intimacy, comes closer to the bare-souled eloquence of his mentors than the new album. But with The Sky Is Too High , Coxon proves that, in time, he can reach his grasp.
