About Group – 'Between The Walls' review
Even within the admittedly limited canon of semi-improvised genre-hopping side-project albums, the third from About Group (Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, Spiritualized’s John Coxon, This Heat’s Charles Hayward and free-jazz big-deal Pat Thomas) is a decidedly odd affair. It would be a catastrophic one, too, were it not for All Is Not Lost – a squelching swagger of a song and the rightful heir to Ginuwine’s 90s sleaze classic Pony – and a couple of other ear-catching curios: if you’ve ever wondered how Alexis Taylor would tackle a bluesy, free-wheeling cover of Walk On By, for example, you’re in for a treat.
Surrounding these however is the very worst kind of plinky-plonky aimless “jazz” and a handful of half-finished Taylor songs that carry none of the confidence that the best improv demands. About Group, then: crazy name, crazy band, infrequently brilliant and maddening for it.
6/10
