Afterlife by Jody Wildgoose

Jody wildgoose is a man dedicated to music. He's supported Pulp at the age of 13 (in the appallingly named various Vegetables), busked in a Sheffield underpass for years and spent his 20s holed up in an attic with a four track learning every instrument under the sun. Such devotion to his art has rewarded him handsmoely with a quirky second album that combines Badly Drawn balladry, Beck-ettian instrumentation and Flaming Lips eccentricity. Unfortunately it's also left him approaching it as more of a science. He's prone to over egging his pudding and obsessing over every last detail, which makes it too studied. Lyrically it's just as introspective and academic (phrases like “rockmusic can set you free" and “pop music will swallow you” pepper the album). Wildgoose needs to cut down on the music theory or his pop might well go and eat itself.