The Charlatans frontman, Tim Burgess, releases his fifth solo studio album, I Love the New Sky, via Bella Union. The album features connective songs of everyday minutiae and universal experience, of love and anger, of loss and belonging, all united by elaborate yet natural arrangements and an effortless but deceptively expert way with melody...

I Love The New Sky is the first of Tim Burgess's solo album where all the tracks were self-penned. In the past he's written collaboratively.

My very first thought when listening to the opening bars of 'Empathy For The Devil' was that it was going to be a cover of The Cure's 1979 song 'Boys Don't Cry'. As it turned out, it wasn't, but the opening is so similar that it can't be a coincidence. Likewise, the opening to 'Undertow' sounds very similar to a famous Beatles track, while 'Comme D-Habitude' could so easily have been a song by '80s band Madness. This made me wonder whether Burgess was subconsciously inspired by other songs, or whether this entire album is a homage to artists he has affection for.

From track to track Burgess brings something new and unexpected - this is far from a lazily thrown together collection of quickly tossed off songs. There's a timeless quality about the tracks here - but that's probably more down to the fact that the overall vibe is of '70-'90s music.

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Nick Smithson