Verdict (& Rating): Prog meets adult pop (65%)
More Info: http://www.renrag.co.uk/
Julian's solo recording career goes back to 1999 and "Wake The Lion". "Doublethink" followed in 2001 and a instrumental release called "Flowdown" in 2002. "Your Good Self" is his most recent release.
Describing Julian's music isn't something you can really do adequately in one or two sentences. For example, his list of influences includes XTC, Squeeze, It Bites, Joe Jackson, King Crimson, Radiohead, Rush, Sting and Yes. The result of these influences is a style that mixes English adult pop with prog.
In fact, the most obvious prog elements are tagged at the beginning and end of the album with 12 min and 8 min tracks. In the middle the English adult pop dominates. I have to admit enjoying the odd snippet of Squeeze or XTC on the radio, but I've never quite liked them enough to spend cold hard cash on their efforts. Julian's interpretation of the genre is one that almost, but not quite, works for me. It is mainly Julian's voice that I have problems with - it's 'reedy' (I don't know what it means either, it just seems like a good description) quality starts to bug me after a while. I'm reminded of Alan Whittaker where it took a collaboration with another singer (Sally Rivers) to bring out the best in his music. Putting the vocals to one side, the other elments such as songwrting, playing and lyrics all seem to he heading in the right direction and get a thumbs up from me.
Given my apathy towards the intelligent adult pop of XTC, Squeeze, Sting and Co, maybe I'm not the best person to be passing comment. It seems to me that there is potential here, but it isn't quite being realised. XTC or Squeeze fans may get more mileage out of this than I did.
