Duncan Lloyd - OutsIde Notion

  by John Clarkson

published: 4 / 7 / 2019

Label: Afternoon in Bed
Format: CD

intro

Enjoyable third solo album from Maximo Park guitarist Duncan Lloyd upon which he experiments with an orchestral pop sound

Duncan Lloyd is best known for being the guitarist and main songwriter in Maximo Park, but 'Outside Notion', his third solo album, finds him moving away from that group's indie rock template and experimenting with a subtle orchestral pop sound. He has a pleasant-on-the-ear if somewhat plain voice, and tells with both empathy and insight on 'Outside Notion' of ordinary human failing, the temptations we all fall for, and our never-ceasing ability to ruin things for ourselves. Where he wins out is in arrangements and composition. No song ends where it has started on 'Outside Notion', and opening track 'Historic Elements' opens with the sound of rumbling strings tuning up and builds up to become a gorgeous, shimmering pop number. The title song, about his crumbling home city of Newcastle, finds him and Sarah Sun, the singer in his other project Nano Kino, bouncing sublime vocals off each other. 'Journey B' is an instrumental which pushes slowly uncoiling violins and a winding cello to the fore, while 'Guess and Wonder' has something of an element of Simon and Garfunkel's 'Scarborough Fair' in is woody acoustic textures. An enjoyable record from a talented musician who reveals on this a very different side to his songwriting.

Track Listing:-