Barry Adamson
Stranger on the Sofa
(Central Control)
'I would often be seen at the age of six or so, pedalling my bike dressed as Batman or as a Beatle [plastic wig, suit and guitar] with a copy of The Hulk in my grasp as I freewheeled home,' writes Adamson on his website. The childhood recollection serves as a fine metaphor for the man's music, which exhibits a youthful sense of adventure for any style, within the context of a soundtrack for some unwritten movie.
Beneath it all lurks a distinctly hulking menace. Stranger on the Sofa is Adamson's third solo release in eight years, and contains various reference points to its predecessors As Above, So Below and The King of Nothing Hill.
As befits a former Bad Seed and friend of Nick Cave, Adamson's music - self-arranged and mostly self-performed - is an oddly affable kind of darkness. It is also entirely unpredictable, with haunting opener Here in the Hole failing to suggest what's coming next. The pun-tastic Theresa Green is a tuneful, psychedelic whimsy to rival the Super Furry Animals, while the bad-trip paranoia