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Review: 'SELWAY, PHILIP'
'Weatherhouse'   

-  Label: 'Bella Union Records'
-  Genre: 'Pop' -  Release Date: '6th October 2014'

Our Rating:
Q - What's the last thing a drummer says in a band? A - "Hey, how about we try one of my songs?"

Radiohead's Philip Selway must have heard his fair share of drummer jokes like this but, undeterred, he continues to write and record his own songs.

Four years after the retro folk of Familial, he returns with his sophomore release, Weatherhouse. At 38 minutes,the album is equally concise (i.e. short) but more ambitious in scope than the acoustic-based predecessor.

The ten track album was made in collaboration with Adem Ilhan (who also produced it) and multi-instrumentalist Quinta (Katherine Mann of Bat For Lashes) both of whom have previously performed in his backing band. “We wanted the album to be the three of us, and we covered a lot of instruments between us......we felt like a band", Selway says.

The album opener Coming Up For Air is promising but also turns out to be the high point. Of this track, Selway comments : “It’s very much about taking stock of my life. I wanted to convey a sense of release and affirmation”.

While he strives gamely to find his own voice, comparisons with Roger Waters and Thom Yorke are inevitable and prove irresistible on Ghosts which has uncanny similarities to Exit Music (For A Film).

A melancholy synth'n'strings pulse backs Selway's muted vocals throughout and you listen in vain for this brooding sense of menace to lift. In consequence, it simmers rather than soars and there is a marked lack of contrast between light and shade.

In weather terms it is cloudy with occasional sunny intervals.    

Philip Selway's website
  author: Martin Raybould

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SELWAY, PHILIP - Weatherhouse