Eighth Day Magazine Issue Thirty-nine

Creepy Neighbour Sneaks in a Classy Pop Album Dave Hammond reviews ‘Debut Album’

Max Taylor, aka Creepy Neighbour, has an interesting past. A founder member and bassist with Clor, a band whose self-titled 2005 debut album sits number one in the NME’s ‘100 Greatest Albums You’ve Never Heard’, he has since worked with the likes of Groove Armada, Roots Manuva, Lily Allen and Mika. Over the last few years, he’s been honing his songwriting skills, releasing several singles and performing some wonderful on-line lockdown sessions with his parents, who are both veterans of the music industry. His debut album, nicely called ‘Debut Album’, was released through Neighbourhood Records / Integrity Publishing on 3rd December.

Opening with a backwards vocal, followed by chiming guitar, a high register vocal and delightfully cheesy organ, the first minute or so of ‘Draw a Map’ sets the tone and template for an album of glorious Pop nuggets that dip into pretty much every decade since the ‘60s for its influences, often finding

them in the more offbeat or unorthodox Pop acts such as Sparks, early Queen, 10cc, ‘80s Synthpop and perhaps, more recently, Rufus Wainwright. The rest of the opener includes some lovely harmonies and an unexpectedly deranged guitar solo. ‘Break a Leg’ bounces along on a bubbling bassline with more New Wave keyboards and a catchy “Try your best, try your best, it’s all you can do” chorus. Similarly, the massed harmonies repeatedly singing “Dreams all in my dreams” (on ‘Love’s Young Dream’) stays in your memory long after the songs finished. It reminded me of the backing provided by family members of Rufus Wainwright on ‘Want’ (2003) and made me wonder if it’s a similar affair here.

However, it’s not all fizzling uptempo pop where anything can and will happen, as can be found with the more stripped back, piano-led ‘Summer Job’ (again with some great backing vocals) and the quietly dramatic, almost operatic ‘The Optimist’. ‘Beyonce’ uses a lyric that wonders why, if the author has the same number of hours in the day as the titular singing sensation, they can’t achieve the same in life. The answer is there in the lyrics, of course.

Meanwhile, in taking the Synthpop of The Human League or Blancmange and adding a Funky guitar and harmonyladen outro, he produces another gem in ‘Mothers Ruin’. It’s an unashamedly, slightly eccentric, but expertly put together album of classy pop music, like they rarely make anymore.

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