Graham Coxon
The Sky Is Too High
[Transcopic/Caroline]
Rating: 5.6
Is the grass is always greener on the other side of the Atlantic? For some odd
reason, American indie bands mimic brit-pop, the Fall, and shoegazers while British
pop bands inevitably try to work more Pavement and Sonic Youth elements into their
sounds. Blur guitarist, Graham Coxon follows suit with a rough collection of lo-
lo- sub- fi, a- boy- and- his- guitar pop songs. Coxon freaks a guitar like few
others, so you'd expect (and hope) his solo album to be chock- a- block with noisy
noodling (i.e. a sloppier Blur's Blur). As Chuck D once said, "Don't believe the
hype."
The Sky Is Too High is rushed and incomplete, recorded in secrecy perhaps or
on the road. With production qualities equivalent to a boombox in a mop closet, the
songs come across like rough demos to what could have been incredible songs. The
grittiest, noisiest moments satiate. "Who The Fuck?" is basically "Bank Holiday"
fused with Sonic Youth. Vacuuming guitars on "That's All I Wanna Do" crush crashing
percussion. Repetitious strumming bursts into feedback hooks on "I Wish." But the
rest of the tracks are early Elliott Smith/ Noise Addict throwaways, at best.
This all seems a desperate attempt on Coxon's part to distance himself from the
teen poster pop icon image. He wants people to know he really listens to Ornette
Coleman, Nick Drake, and Unwound in his spare time. His schedule (shed-jew-ewl)
must be pretty tight being in a huge rock band, but more time spent on this record
could have proven very valuable.
-Brent DiCrescenzo