John Foxx

ON HIS first album for two years, John Foxx seems to have evolved a songwriting style best described as chirpy and wholesome. With none of the fraught and pretension-prone offerings that clutter his past, herein a happy man sings happy songs! It begins in a blaze, 'Stars On Fire', which is Foxx at his most Potent. He traces that distinctive (love it or loathe it) vocal tone into a concisely drawn blueprint of a pop song. The intelligence of the design doesn't neuter the emotion and the whole track fairly crackles with majesty and atmosphere.

Throughout he coaxes a warm lyrical imagery – these days besotted more with lurve than car crashes et al – with an almost cheeky simplicity and wraps everything in a bright shroud of crisply executed music.

Annoyingly the singular low-point is also the uninspired single choice 'Enter The Angel'. An inoffensive airplayable thing but hardly likely to provoke the casual listener to any higher regard.

And it's higher regard that John Foxx could do with. And deserves.