Miles Kane - Change The Show

Miles Kane had his fourth solo album practically in the can before an impromptu jam with London psych outfit Sunglasses For Jaws compelled him to recruit the pair to re-record the whole thing. Injecting their looser, more shambling energies for Album-Four-Take-Two, the eventual product, ‘Change the Show’, fizzes with an upbeat energy, drenched head-to-toe in Miles’ staple obsessions. Learning a thing or two from his time in soul-covers supergroup The Jaded Hearts Club (for what it’s worth, an act best experienced on paper), his latest feels a crash course in the rudiments of wham-bam northern soul and Wall of Sound-indebted pop, with knowledge of the Bolan-esque ballad or Beatles-y romp thrown in for good measure (as Miles’ guitar tone resurrects George Harrison’s ghost in leading cut ‘See Ya When I See Ya’, one half expects John Lennon to croon “isolation” at any moment). Lyrically, the record betrays the singer’s new guise as a seasoned rock veteran, ponderously reflecting on his life to date - “I sue myself for damages for the mistakes I made” he broods on ‘Coming of Age’ - while retaining, now and then, that familiar, youthful bluster - “whisk me off to Sicily, we’ll pretend we know the history” he beams joyously on ‘Tell Me What You’re Feeling’. All in all, the blanketing lime-lit production, the in-your-face ’60s nostalgia, the five-sugars-in-the-tea gooiness of it all may be too cloying for some, but Miles Kane has been so upfront about these musical influences, and for so long, that one can only admire him for so faithfully embodying them.