Cripes I have no idea what to say about this one – you’re going to think I’ve lost my mind. Basically this is squarely and absolutely not my kind of music, as well you will know once you listen to the songs below. Despite that, and somewhat oddly, there is barely a song here that doesn’t have a really, really catchy hook in it somewhere, and somehow I find myself oddly fascinated by this record.

Given I don’t listen to this kind of music much, I can’t really give you much of a comparison, but I think that if you imagine Starsailor with some actual tunes and more strings where they would use piano then you should be there or thereabouts. Not exactly Toad fare, you would assume. Me too. But either I secretly love this album and am trying to kid myself that I don’t because it’s not macho enough for all my empty posturing, or I have just listened to it so many times that I don’t know what I think anymore.

Whatever the weather, Cornish is not kidding himself that he’s tearing up trees here. Almost the very first lyrics of the whole record are: “I’m not not breaking new ground/ I’m not creating a new sound”, and he’s not. Gentle pop songs, lifted by strings and breezing through the room, it’s all very familiar stuff which is why I was more than a little dismissive at first. But he’s an Edinburgh lad, so I thought I owed it to some odd sense of loyalty to the place to hear him out and properly get to know his album.

Surprising myself, I’ve discovered that it’s really worth putting the time into. It may not be my sort of music but fuck me, he can really write a tune. There’s a little twist in each song that is eminently sticky and eventually I found myself letting the songs slip, one by one, past my normally immaculate angsty indie-snob defences. Now, I guess most of you won’t like this for just the same reasons I mentioned above, but I reckon there are quite a few of my readers who, like me, will find themselves liking this album despite themselves.

So, on the 10th October, I think, this record will be released into the universe. In the meantime, have a sniff of his excellent single This One’s For You, which can be downloaded from iTunes here. I popped it into one of my podcasts a while back, and it is a really good tune.

Am I turning into a Radio2 listener – the latest in a long list of depressing signs of abandoning my lost yoof? Or is this just a really good album and I am being a dick?

Alex Cornish – Counting Chimney Pots
Alex Cornish – The Trouble I Am

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