Album: Kevin Ayers

The Unfairground (Lo-Max)

Like many an old-timer, Kevin Ayers is mostly concerned with lost loves and missed opportunities on this, his first album of new material in 15 years. But there's a relaxed, easy manner to the songs that reflects well on Ayers and his accomplices, who include old friends like Robert Wyatt, Phil Manzanera, Hugh Hopper and Bridget St John, and young fans such as Euros Childs and members of Teenage Fanclub. Ayers' languid charm is undimmed, and his louche baritone croon remains one of British pop's more engaging secrets, whether he's pondering the value of dreams in "Brainstorm", the redemptive power of love in "Wide Awake" or, in "Old Shoulders", how "Old shoulders become cold shoulders/ Nothing left to dream on", a recurrent theme. With arrangements ranging from the Forever Changes strings of "Friends & Strangers" and the folksy mandolin, accordion and horns of "Baby Come Home", to the eerie soundscape that accompanies his nightmare in "Brainstorm", the results traverse a broad and appealing range of pop styles.

Download this: 'Friends & Strangers', 'Wide Awake', 'Baby Come Home', 'Run Run Run'