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Rating: Coxon must have developed a taste for being inspired by TV series (in turn inspired by graphic novels): after his two volumes of "The End of the F***ing World" (the second volume, which is his tenth solo album, was released just 3 months ago), here he is again for "I Am Not Okay With This", but this time the soundtrack takes on a decidedly different and oblique form.
Initially starting from the composition of just one track ("Fly") commissioned by the director (the same one from "The End of The F***ing World"), a piece that was supposed to accompany a key moment of the story (one of the protagonists is passionate about an unknown band, the "Bloodwitch", and "uses" them to create a first connection with the main protagonist), Graham becomes particularly enamored with the idea of the "fake band" created specifically for the series and continues to compose track after track, at this point ideally no longer just his own, but of Bloodwitch, until he has enough for a full album: singing alongside Coxon is Tatyana Richaud, a young musician and singer, with an angelic (or demonic, depending on the perspective) voice akin to Bilinda Butcher of My Bloody Valentine.
In fact, My Bloody Valentine are one of the declared influences for an album that moves between shoegaze, psychedelia, and dreampop. There's also a sort of "official fictitious history" of the band, which is a duo debuting in 1983, when the members were between 16 and 19 years old, whose main influences are the already mentioned My Bloody Valentine (not so much those of "Loveless" but those of "Ep's 1988-1991"), the Jesus and Mary Chain (those of "Psychocandy", obviously), and the Velvet Underground (especially those of the banana album, I would say): that is, three of the musical obsessions of the adolescent Coxon. Furthermore, this first album should be considered as their "Best of": by listening to the tracks, one should perceive their stylistic evolution, with the obsessive "Motorcade" representing, for example, their first published single (when they were more raw), and from there adopting a sweeter, more psychedelic, and refined vein, always accompanied by the elaborate noise work of the guitars. In short, noise and honey as a single and indivisible entity, in the best tradition of shoegaze.
Coxon's guitar is indeed constantly in "surgical determination of the precise direction to give to the noise" mode: I have been following him for more than twenty years with and without Blur, but each time I am left speechless for his hyper-creative and personal use of the expressive possibilities of the guitar and for the very high standards of compositional level. Ecstasy (the already mentioned "Fly", probably the heart of the album, "Forever and Never", "Vanilla Skin", "A Higher Place", "I'm Yours Tonight"), darkness ("Bloody Witch", the already mentioned "Motorcade") and brightness ("Skipping Stone", "Gotta Have Soul", "Hey Little Girl") are the ingredients of the album's mood, which probably won't remain a "one-of-a-kind": their second album is already in the works, which should be released simultaneously with the launch of the second season of the series.
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