Blur guitarist Graham Coxon’s previous solo albums had largely been an exercise in venting his alt-rock fury outside of the day-job. Two years after being ejected from Blur, however, his fifth found him knuckling down and producing a set of songs that delivered precisely the sort of scruffy power pop that his estranged bandmates, and an increasingly Gorillaz-focused Damon Albarn, had largely abandoned. Spiky opener Spectacular and The Skids-indebted Freakin’ Out both could have been shoo-ins for Blur singles, while Bittersweet Bundle Of Misery was essentially his own Coffee & TV Mk.2.

– Chris Catchpole