John Squire may have been seen as the real talent behind The Stone Roses, but ever since that band fell apart the moody guitarist has looked like a man desperately unsure of what to do with himself. An ill-advised foray into pub-rock with The Seahorses aside, he's remained silent while his former partner Ian Brown has, against all the odds, carved out a surprisingly successful solo career. Now, in a typically low-key manner, Squire has decided to take the plunge and go it alone. The good news is that this lo-fi collection of rootsy ballads reveals him to have a perfectly good singing voice, not unlike a nasally-challenged David Bowie. The bad news is that his songwriting has gone to pot, with painfully derivative arrangements compounded by a depressing litany of trite, cliche ridden lyrics. A partial redemption comes at the end in the form of 'Sophia', a charming country love song - but it's far too little and far too late. It goes without saying that Roses fans will need to have this, but only the most diehard of them will honestly find much to enjoy here. Suddenly, a reunion doesn't seem like such a bad idea after all.
