(London)
***
Review: Russell Baillie
The All Seeing I are the Sheffield DJ-producer trio of Messrs Parrot, Bucknel and Honer who, with the aid of Jarvis Cocker and a few other local pop legends, have cobbled together this album of grim humour and askew appeal.
It's a sort of electro-cabaret affair where the beats
and backing - a loopy jumblesale of rhythms and basslines - largely run second to the melancholic songs, especially as Cocker's songwriting gives veteran crooner Tony Christie and the Human League's Phil Oakey some bittersweet tales in their songs about life out of the limelight.
Christie rises above the novelty factor of his inclusion and infuses his three tracks - the opening Walk Like a Panther, Stars On Sunday and the blackly amusing ode to an illegitimate daughter Happy Birthday Nicola - with quite some pathos, as does Oakey on First Man In Space over its aptly damaged electro-pop backing.
Cocker does Cocker rather well on the Drive Safely Darlin' while elsewhere the album does show a lighter side on a bouncy The Beat Goes On.
Yes, quite a variety show this, the sound of swingin' Sheffield.
