Chris Bradley - At The Outpost

 

Singer-songwriter Chris Bradley joined Edinburgh quirk-poppers Aberfeldy shortly after their second album Do Whatever Turns You On. From the sound of his second solo album, Bradley’s personal litany of trouser-bothering influences include Jackson Browne and The Eagles. Sometimes his drive-time FM emulation works: the frail falsetto of The Man I Love resembles Neil Young (his lesser material admittedly, but Young nonetheless); Goddess of Love’s shifting tempo carries shades of Love; while Running Song survives dodgy lyrics by powering on in an Elton John vein. But Your Close Friend’s gospel-blues is listless, and the less said about Status Quo pastiche (at least I hope it’s pastiche) The Beatles the better. Ultimately it’s not the old-fashioned sources that disappoint (some of my best friends are artists from your dad’s record collection), but the tepid execution; it’s ‘Mojo Magazine: The Musical’ and it’s considerably less than the sum of its forebearers.[Chris Buckle]