LP, Limited Edition, Gatefold
Cooking Vinyl (2023) UK
Debut solo album by Dave Rowntree, best known as the drummer in Blur. It's a record set to surprise many people, being an electronic-based album with orchestral fringes, filled with great, tuneful songs delivered by Rowntree's assured and expressive vocal performances.
While down the years he's provided backing vocals on many of Blur's albums and onstage during their live sets, this is the first time the drummer has stepped up to the microphone as a singer in his own right. He says he didn't particularly find the prospect daunting.
Produced by Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, Ghostpoet, Wild Beasts), featuring co-writers including Gary Go and Högni Egilsson and stirring orchestrations recorded in Budapest, Radio Songs is a sonically expansive, but also deeply personal record.