Jimi Goodwin – Odludek

Despite spending the best part of his career fronting a band named Doves, Jimi Goodwin isn’t a fan of inhabiting pigeonholes. He’s been talking up “mad mixtape” Odludek pretty much since Doves first went on hiatus, pledging a solo debut defined by stylistic heterogeneity; something to give his creative impulses a workout, chopping and changing from one song to the next.

While there’s plenty here that’s emphatically Doves-like (Didsbury Girl, Oh! Whiskey), the results largely fulfil that promise, with Terracotta Warrior’s opening blast of tuneless noise blowing dust and preconceptions out the listener’s lugholes. But the real shake-up is saved for the old-school dance vibe of Live Like A River – a reminder that ‘Jimi from Doves’ is also ‘Jimi formerly of Sub Sub.’ The circus canter of Man Vs Dingo is a less appealing stab at diversification, but a few spills are more than acceptable given the quality exuded elsewhere.