Fred Abbott, for those blithely unaware, is the bewhiskered, bespectacled bloke who, aside from looking rather unnervingly like my sister-in-law’s ex-boyfriend Bert, played guitar and keyboards in the successful London indie-folk outfit Noah and The Whale. But don’t let that little detail put you off.
I say this not in jest, but because I’ve encountered just as many Whale-haters over the past few years as I have punters who have championed them. Fred’s debut solo album, though, is likely to grab that surly frown from the face of the unbelievers and twist it jovially until everybody is grinning like Jimmy Saville at a girl guides’ swimming gala.
The good news for the haters is that Abbott’s ‘Serious Poke‘ sounds bugger all like his erstwhile bandmates, instead celebrating the kind of youthful reverie typified by Supergrass at the height of their charm.
‘Adrenaline Shot‘, which opens this album, is an apt title for most of the music on offer here – a mostly uptempo, positive set that borrows respectfully from the vast canon of pop/rock acts from the past thirty five years or so. You could easily see this as Gaz Coombes being backed by the ‘best bar band in the world’, The Hold Steady, perhaps performing their classic track ‘Constructive Summer‘, such is the focus on having a good time and the Springsteen like piano motifs.
Well OK, I lied just a tiny bit earlier on, as ‘Honey‘ does harbour some of the Lou Reed-lite meanderings that helped to make Abbott’s band’s name in the first place, but he is not afraid to look towards the cheesier end of the music universe – ‘Funny How Good It Feels‘, for instance, is part Rolling Stones and part Justin Hawkins, delivered with a hefty AOR thump that recalls Rainbow in all their late seventies pomp.
Abbott has an unwavering love of the 1970s, it seems, the influences come at you like dodgem carts. Here come Mink De Ville, who glide by menacingly every now and again, while ‘Don’t Look Like Him‘ sees The Boss in hot pursuit, although he seems to lose control of his particular bumper car and ends up just circling the joint aimlessly for the remainder of the ride.
‘Lucky People‘ is a Randy Newman meets Burt Bacharach type piano ballad which comes complete with minimalist ‘Brothers In Arms‘ style Mark Knopfler guitar twiddling. It’s a lovely way to close the album and could bliss the tusks off a sabre-tooth tiger.
‘Serious Poke‘ could well win Abbott a whole army of new fans, for it has enough little quirks to keep the more alternative leaning connoisseur happy, yet it is commercial enough to appeal to someone who thinks that Dido is cutting edge. Pretty impressive stuff.
[Rating:3]
