Rhys Williams
Album: Great Falls
Label: Right Track
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.rhyswilliamsmusic.com

Having made a few dents on the impenetrable hard case of Britpop indie rock with Sheffield outfit The Ankle Stars, landing a management arrangement with Morrissey's MD Boz Boorer in the process, Welsh singer songwriter Rhys Williams has endured a few slings and arrows in the music biz.

He's been advised by Adam's original Ants drummer Dave Barbe, played flute for Morrissey on You Are the Quarry album track I'm Not Sorry and spent years paying as many dues as it takes to get an album made these days.

That album is Great Falls and it's chock-full of melodic, mature, literate and largely thrilling piano-led pop tunes that demand attention. Musically, there's a bit of an early- to mid-70s thing going on with sonic references to 'good' period albums from the likes of Elton John, Wings, Mott, Cat Stevens, 10cc, Steely Dan, even the milder moments of Who's Next on The Top, a suitably bittersweet dissection of suicide.

Lyrically, that song is in good company as Williams also finds inspiration titty bar politics on Masquerade and Civvy Street alienation in Homes For Heroes, as well as paternal deprivation in Diamond Tears (with BJ Cole's telling pedal steel presence), financial crisis in Banknotes and romantic disentanglement in Hurricane Jane.

Forget all that 'guilty pleasures' nonsense about mid-70s bands that wrote great pop songs and don't go looking for cool prestige in dropping the name Rhys Williams, but if you like your music laced with great melodies and diverting lyrics sung by a voice that won't upset your nan (and I mean that in a good way) then you need to hear Great Falls very soon.

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk