It's now fully 20 years since the glory days of Echo and the Bunnymen, and Ian McCulloch's new solo album is the sound of a man who's profoundly weary of it all. Beneath the Liverpudlian lip and the arrogant swagger, it appears that the Mac has always been a sensitive soul after all - and he lets all his frustrations out on these highly confessional songs, a litany of personal recriminations, lost loves and pleas for emotional rescue. And just in case anyone bemoans the absence of his usual sidekick guitarist Will Sergeant, he's brought along Coldplay's Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland to lend the project some much-needed star quality. It should be a winning formula - but unfortunately McCulloch seems to have completely run out of lyrical inspiration these days, and what's clearly intended to be powerful and majestic ends up sounding merely predictable and dreary. "I love the taste of self-defeat," croons McCulloch at one point. By the sounds of things, this time he's indulged himself just a little too much.
