Lord Cut-Glass - Lord Cut-Glass

No one could accuse Alun Woodward of rushing things. Lord Cut-Glass is the alias under which the former Delgado has slowly been unveiling his solo material since 2007, averaging about a track a year. Now, however, he releases his full-length solo debut, and it seems to have been worth the wait. There's a certain wistful irony in Woodward's ostentatious new alias and album cover, as if there is a tacit acknowledgement, replete with half-smile, of the gulf between the baroque grandeur of the musical arrangements and the guid auld-fashioned blunt honesty of the lyrics, delivered in their author's unmistakably Scottish accent. Yet Woodward has hit upon a successful formula, managing to create a record which combines traditional Scots parochialism with our tendency to think bigger than our limits, and a rhythmic dynamism that lends proceedings their own indefinable energy. On the whole, this record is an almost perfectly executed quirky pop gem.