With Radiohead on the sort of hiatus only their respective members could dream up, drummer Philip Selway has had plenty of time on his hands to look at projects of his own, but his last solo outing Weatherhouse dated as far back as 2014.
Perhaps surprisingly he took the decision to surrender percussion duties for Strange Dance to Valentina Magaletti, who joined a stellar list of fellow collaborators including including Hannah Peel, Adrian Utley, Quinta, Marta Salogni and cellist Laura Moody.
Selway conceived the album as both an affirmation of his current place in life’s journey – “It’s me as a 55-year-old not trying to hide that fact” and as an aural safe space for it’s listeners “If you’re listening to it you can lose yourself in it, almost like a refuge.”
These are clearly ambitious goals, but Selway and friends deliver some evident succour on What Keeps You Awake At Night and Make It Go Away, whilst opener Little Things speaks to his recent work scoring film projects. If there are downsides, they’re found mostly in a voice that on occasions fails to live up to some of the luxuriant arrangements and once or twice, a lapse into the noodling AOR most Radiohead haters think they sound like. Strange Dance is almost too perfectly assembled – maybe it’s time for it’s creator to grow old a little more disgracefully.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 