graham coxon - "don't believe anything i say" (from the love travels at illegal speeds lp, released march 14, import available for preorder here.)

in brief : graham's best solo record--but don't take my word for it.

when "don't believe anything i say" begins, you may be wondering if they've ever seen the rain or, more to the point, whether they've heard this song before. fear not, graham is not backsliding into classic rock in his advanced years; "don't believe" soon approaches unexpected places or rather expected, and rewarding, places for those who've been following his career since the early days of blur. the chorus has the general sense of wobbliness that inheres in all of his best work, by that i mean a sense of unsure footing, of being slightly off-kilter. (what really is unexpected is that the record's hook is graham's vocal, the stretching of the second syllable in "believe.")

"don't believe anything i say" would be the perfect link track between "badhead" and "to the end" (and, really, who would miss either "bank collector" or "far out.") it shares the resigned head-scratching and 1pm-and-i'm-still-in-pajamas feeling of the former and the sophisticated musical pallette of the latter. "link track" would seem to diminish the track's quality; what one should instead take from the association is that i think it'd fit in on parklife--indeed, it's better than a number of the tracks on that album. this part, however, may beggar belief, but this is why i provide aural evidence : "don't believe anything i say" may v. well be the best blur, or blur-related, track in ten-plus years. believe it ... or not?