So our heart sank when we heard that Jon Boden, frontman for the irrepressible funk-folk collective Bellowhead, had forsaken the traditional fare his band does so well for SONGS HE'D WRITTEN, on his new solo album.

Not for the first time we were wrong to worry. 'Songs From The Floodplain' is a magnificent record, of, you know, proper actual songs that are good and stuff. (We're hoping that'll be the quote they use for the cover sticker).

It's by no means a cheerful album, with the songs set in a world of post-economic and environmental meltdown, inhabited by Faulkner-esque preachers and townsfolk left with little but derelict factories to remind them of happier, more prosperous times.

We're searching for a soundbite. How about: Jon Boden's 'Songs From The Floodplain' is a cross between the kind of record Nick Cave used to make, only a lot less shouty, and the kind of thing The Divine Comedy used to do, before Neil Hannon stopped taking himself seriously. (They can use that one for the poster.)

We'd also like to say that the coat Jon Boden is wearing on the album cover is the same coat we've been wearing to work all winter. We bought it for a pound on ebay.

4 folk apocalypses out of five

by Tim

www.jonboden.com