BBC Review 1bj6o
Love Travels At Illegal Speeds, Graham Coxon's sixth solo album, is a more relaxed,...
Dan Tallis 2002
Love Travels At Illegal Speeds, Graham Coxon's sixth solo album, is a more relaxed, varied and accessible affair compared to the full-on rock mode of 2004's Happiness In Magazines.
There are still plenty of Coxon's trademark scratchy guitar sounds. Punk riffs cascade relentlessly, getting faster and faster with each ing song. "I Can't Look At Your Skin" sounds like late 70s Buzzcocks, only a whole lot better.
But it's with the slower songs that Coxon really comes of age as a songwriter as he tells touching stories of tough love, lust and jealously. Not to mention imagined affairs ("Don't Let Your Man Know"). While "Just A State Of Mind" is one of several tracks that sound remarkably similar to Blur's 13.
Quirky guitar rhythms, NHS glasses, love soaked ditties. It's as if Elvis Costello never went away...