Guaranteed worldwide coverage because of his day job as Radiohead’s drummer and signed to Bella Union, a UK indie label currently at the top of its game, Phil Selway is in an enviable position. Distancing himself from the oblique lyrical tendencies favoured by Thom Yorke as much as Radiohead’s complex approach to alternative, occasionally experimental rock, Selway here restricts himself mainly to acoustic guitars, barely perceptible rhythm tracks and whispered sincerity. Indeed, the most striking aspect of its production is his modesty: rather than gathering together famous friends and Nigel Godrich’s expansive studio techniques, he hired engineer Ian Davenport and recorded in his management company’s studios, and forsaking oblique angst at the world’s injustices, he writes as a man in his mid-40s about, as the title suggests, domestic matters. If Selway’s fame can help encourage people to explore the more refined subtleties of music like this he’s served himself and his fellow songwriters well.
