Edwyn Collins – Losing Sleep

Indie-legend Edwyn Collins is pretty extraordinary by any yardstick. It’s disappointing, however, that recent expressions of amazement have focussed less on the quality of what he does, than on the fact he does it at all following 2005’s brain haemorrhages. Losing Sleep, by contrast, generates astonishment not because he’s ‘bounced back’ – let’s avoid patronisation – but because songwriters in their fourth decade of recording rarely sound so fresh.

Credit goes partially to the young(er) guns enlisted to assist. They leave fingerprints – What Is My Role? features Ryan Jarman vocals, while Do It Again (co-written by Alex Kapranos and Nick McCarthy) has a Franz-esque beat – but considering Collins has influenced them and their kin for decades, a reversal seems fair. The results don’t always gel, but individually, songs stand proud: from the soul-stomp title track to closing ballad Searching For the Truth, Collins proves remarkable for all the right reasons. [Chris Buckle]