IAN MCNABB aka BATMAN

This self-titled 14 track release is his first studio album since 1998's 'A Party Political Broadcast On Behalf Of The Emotional Party'.

For obvious reasons, any Liverpudlian with a guitar and a recording contract is going to have an awful lot to live up to. Fortunately, Ian McNabb's eponymous album, his first electric outing in five years, shows him up to the task. Record sales may have been disproportionately low in relation to his manifold songwriting talents--the former Icicle Works frontman was a Mercury Music Prize nominee (for Head like a Rock, his 1994 ragged country-rock album with Crazy Horse)--but on the strength of Ian McNabb--Def Leppard will know who to turn to if they ever get stuck for tunes. Yes, Ian McNabb has very nearly made a heavy metal album. Thus "Livin' Proof", "Friend of My Enemy" and the knowingly corny (he can be such a wag) "Whatever It Takes" all sport monster-of-rock power riffs, phallic guitar solos and radio-friendly melodies as mentally adhesive as a strip of Elastoplast across the forehead. On the flip-side, McNabb's recently favoured role as the plaintive troubadour pays further dividends on the lonesome, Neil Young-styled "Hotel Stationary" and "Hollywood Tears", a broadside at socially conscious celebrity insincerity performed as a duet with Cousteau vocalist Liam McKahey. Throw in some perky, obligatory Merseypop gems ("Liverpool Girl", "Moment in the Sun") and it's another rather good Ian McNabb record. -- Kevin Maidment