High Llamas

The album Sean O’Hagan recorded between the end of his first group, Microdisney, and the beginning of his second, The High Llamas, often slips through the cracks — it’s never really been given its due. It was released in 1990, when independent music culture in the UK was all about shoegaze and American guitars, and rave culture was on the ascent; it probably wasn’t the time for sublimely crafted songs inspired by the troubadour R&B/rock of Alex Chilton’s post-Big Star solo material. But that’s where O’Hagan’s head was at, and listening back, there’s an honesty to the album, a lack of need to impress or fit in, that serves it very well; O’Hagan’s songwriting is already rich with poetry, and his lyrics are finely attuned to the weirdness of everyday life.