Alex Highton
Album: Woodditton Wives' Club
Label: The Local Label
Tracks: 13
Website: http://www.alexhighton.com

After growing up in Liverpool and then spending around a decade in London, Alex decamped with his family to rural Cambridgeshire. The experience was so cathartic it triggered the writing and recording of a bunch of songs that chronicled both his journey from the city to the country and his subsequent discovery of an England he didn't know existed and a life he didn't know he was looking for.

I don't know the village of Woodditton personally, but I can locate it in the south-eastern corner of the county quite close to Newmarket, and its comparative isolation is probably not a matter for debate, but whatever the reality, Alex has clearly been inspired by his relocation to create some endearing and often surprisingly melodic songs that range from genial rumination on life's simple pleasures (like breathing in the fresh air even) to quietly observational perception of the attitudes and behaviour of others in the context of the world turning.

Alex's amused, bemused content with his new environment is well expressed in the delightful Village Life and the strangely comforting alienation of The Great Divide. The simple sounds of Alex and his guitar are augmented by friends playing violin/viola, trumpet/French horn, piano/Rhodes, double bass and drums, giving what turns out a slightly Stackridge/Beatle-ish feel to much of his work, especially those songs where his true-born Scouser's sense of humour surfaces (Stupid and the whimsical Hip With The Kids), not to mention the more wistful McCartney-esque I Just Found Out Today.

Alex's bittersweet delivery is both charming and disarming, and the sincerity of his writing is never in doubt; this brief but intensely welcoming collection heralds the arrival of a minor treasure within the arena of quintessentially English songwriting.

David Kidman