As a reviewer required to digest, rate and file copy on albums weeks and sometimes months in advance, it can be slightly daunting to have to nail your colours to the mast. Will your appraisal turn out to be wildly wide of the mark, or out of step with the consensus? (The Manics' Critical Thinking, for instance, seems to have been rather better received than I'd anticipated - not that that has changed my view on it much.)
With Richard Dawson's latest, there was no such anxiety; on the contrary, I was confident that I'd be just one of a chorus of writers singing its praises - and so it's proved.
While The Ruby Cord began with the remarkable 41-minute-long track 'The Hermit', End Of The Middle does the opposite trick: gradually gathering momentum until the last few tracks leave you breathless. It's further (entirely superfluous) proof that Dawson is a genuine one of a kind.
Buzz review here.
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