Album: Jim Noir, Jim Noir (My Dad)
Friday 04 April 2008
Latest in Reviews
On Facebook
Arts & Ents blogs
From London to Barcelona: Lee Webster explains how moving abroad boosted his creativity
Sometimes moving overseas can help lubricate a person's creativity helping to boost something that w...
RIP Whitney Houston
Michael Jackson. Amy Winehouse. Now Whitney Houston. When the biggest names precede ‘has died’ I alw...
Something for the weekend in London: February 17-19
To some, February is the month of lurrrve, to others it's the month of rain, snow and flu, but for u...
Jim Noir's dazzling 2006 album Tower of Love was basically just an aggregation of earlier EPs, so this is the Mancunian genius's debut proper. And what a debut, stuffed with whimsical beauty and gorgeous layered harmonies that Brian Wilson would kill for, each instrument and vocal painstakingly overdubbed by Noir.
Solo albums don't get any more solo, or more enticing. Noir seems to possess the childlike wonder of a Syd Barrett or, indeed, a Brian Wilson, evoking the plight of a modern Major Tom in "Welcome Commander Jameson", expressing joy at the prospect of meeting his beloved in "Happy Day Today", and recognising the charm of the British seaside in "Same Place Holiday". Musically, he shares the eclectic-psychedelic approach of his chums Super Furry Animals, but it's his vocal arrangements that beguile. An extraordinary achievement.
Download this: 'All Right', 'Happy Day Today', 'What U Gonna Do', 'On a Different Shelf'
- 1 BANNED: The most controversial films
- 2 The artist vandalising advertising with poetry
- 3 Spotify: 1 million plays, £108 return
- 4 Amanda Knox agrees $4m deal for tell-all book
- 5 First Listen: Bruce Springsteen, Wrecking Ball, Theatre Marigny, Paris
- 6 Whitney Houston, the greatest voice of her generation
- 7 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (12A)
- 1 Vatican told to pay taxes as Italy tackles budget crisis
- 2 Spotify: 1 million plays, £108 return
- 3 Pete Doherty: I was a bit unhinged
- 4 Khader Adnan: The West Bank's Bobby Sands
- 5 Rothschild loses libel case, and reveals secret world of money and politics
- 6 'My 10 days at an Eton summer school was a real shock to the system'
- 7 WikiLeaks takes aim at an unlikely new victim: Unesco
- 8 Prehistoric cybermen? Sardinia's lost warriors rise from the dust
- 9 Can you master a language in a weekend?
- 10 The artist vandalising advertising with poetry
Free trial of new Independent iPad app
Get your daily dose of the best of British journalism, sponsored by American Airlines
Win a family adventure for four in the new Subaru XV
Enjoy a three-nights family adventure at Slaley Hall Resort, Northumberland courtesy to Subaru XV
Amazing restaurant offers
Three glasses of free champagne and a special menu at 46 top London restaurants.
Latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page
Inside the tiny town that will topple Sarkozy
Claire Foy: Criticism, tumours and embarrassing sex scenes
Wilderness and wildlife in Australia’s Top End
48 Hours: Marrakech




Comments