Green Isaac
Album: Little Noises
Label: Square Records
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.greenisaac.com

More than 20 years in the making, the re-activation of singer songwriter Paul Holman's musical partnership with drummer Andy Place, keysman Scott Marlow, guitarist Mark Arnold and bassist Adi Biggs is finally upon us.

As befits the album's title there has been minimum fuss and zero fanfare, but from the first listen it's clear that title drips with irony. From the first note the record oozes class - sophisticated without sounding aloof, its songs speak of all our lives with an everyman touch, both the lives we've lead and the ones that lie ahead.

As such it employs a wide musical palette to paint its broad sonic canvasses, channelling a host of spirits from XTC, Crowded House and Prefab Sprout (and not just in the band's name), to The Shins, maybe even Emitt Rhodes or Big Star, but certainly The Beatles. Unflinchingly tuneful and unashamedly old school it may be, there are also risks - the electronic beats on Guessing Game for instance somehow hark back to Costello's more contrarian moments from All This Useless Beauty or Mighty Like a Rose. Juggler throws some uncomfortable truths into the ring and has revealed itself as a key track, but then the same could be said for album opener Cracks In the Pavement with its clever appropriation of the Hello Goodbye bassline.

Duty Bound is a magical song, a love poem to a figure of awe; while the serving of the Chicken Soup Choir on Treading Water makes a life-affirming difference, lifting a charming song high into the stratosphere - just try listening to it without feeling glad. There are similar sentiments in play in 5 Miles Behind You, a nicely judged anthem to admiration.

The album is mixed by Noel Gallagher's studio consigliere Paul Stacey who also contributes a telling guitar solo to Scary, a heartfelt embrace of life's ups and downs. Stacey's confidant hand can be felt throughout, rooting songs that in lesser hands would sound disparate in a common place, giving them a shared sense of space.

Finding Treasure remembers the way things were when every day was a discovery, Stolen Sleep is marked by some superior guitar work, as is Beautiful Fake which goes on to play piano footsie with Kate Bush and Ben Folds while ruminating on what's got before.

For all the existential examination lurking in the depths of these songs, they are first and foremost, an entertainment and in the grand showbiz tradition Little Noises leaves the listener longing for more. In a swoonsome nod to Paddy McAloon and co, the album's closer, Promises is a plaintive and pensive paean to getting it wrong in the past with just a hint of hope that we may have learned from such errors.

In an age when style is invariably sacrificed to content, Little Noises is a handsomely crafted testament to the time when it was commonplace to demand - and get - both.

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk