Edwyn Collins - Doctor Syntax
(Instinct)

Master studio craftsman Edwyn Collins graces the world with his first album in five years, and it’s like he never left. The Scottish vet who this year scraped his way into VH1’s "100 greatest one-hit wonders" list for 1995’s "A Girl Like You" is still driving away at the same themes that have consumed him over the course of his last couple albums and, well, he’s still right.

Railing against phoniness, Collins continues to wage the campaign for real rock with his wonderfully anachronistic sounds and cutting turns of phrase, pilfering choice musical bits across genres and eras. Whether it’s "On The Good Ship Lollipop" or Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five’s "Freedom," the former Orange Juice leader does not shy away from borrowed musical audacity, even going so far as to do a song called "The Beatles." The song’s loping beat, piercing drums and deep bass match up with irreverent lines like "Let’s hear it for the gay Beatle" to offer not an indictment of the Fabs but more a lamentation of iconography and fame. That’s if you feel like reading into it, which is strictly optional.

It’s perhaps Collins’ central theme – that mass culture will continue to disappoint us, but that this central truth shouldn’t stop us all from having a good, hearty laugh about it all. It goes way beyond the lyrics. It is pervasive in the music throughout. So many genius pop moments ("No Idea," "20 Years To Late") synthesize post-new wave boldness with a disco-like swing. Like his classic Gorgeous George, this album is way too much fun to be a downer, even if it knows in its gut how lame the world can be sometimes.

YEAH YEAH YEAH, 2002