Link up to lyrics

2:51pm Wednesday 27th June 2001

Carl Linkson has obviously stumbled onto a great idea for yet another compilation album the greatest backing track album in the world, writes Andrew Richards.

Though Carl is a good musician, this EP is about as interesting as watching a band do a sound check for three hours.

And if that wasn't bad enough, to be specific the album actually sounds like Carl Linkson impersonating other people's backing tracks.

Soft sounds strangely like some student rock band warming up before a gig. All very loose and aimless, then suddenly for some reason, midway through the song it sounds like Neil Young on one of his two hour sonic odysseys with Crazy Horse.

After this laid back rock of the mid-west, Carl hits the murky ordinary streets of UK college indie rock, and the horrors that go with it.

Swimmer, Half Man Half Biscuit, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, all very scary. Again the song is hijacked by Devo and Modern Romance.

If I wasn't a lover of such indulgent, shiftless strumming, I would probably feel really angry.

Luckily, the next two tracks are a vast improvement. Gentle Cool Down especially. Although it sounds like a Beatles hand me down to George Harrison during his lean solo years, it does have a tighter structure and far more purpose.

Sail away again is a bit more accomplished, but has the mistaken aroma of baby oil and hair gel synonymous with leather and lace 80s stadium rock.

Curb the fatal urge to pull out your lighter, it's not worth it.

I don't want to sound like an old man, but what happened to lyrics, they kinda made the song more interesting. Nice enough.

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