If you’re a fan of grown-up pop music, this is about as good as it gets. Nevin is best-known for his work with Fairground Attraction and Morrissey, and his last album, Beautiful Guitars was excellent.
My Unfashionable Opinion, his fifth solo album, kicks off strongly with the title track, a song that features sterling organ playing and Nevin in full voice, somewhere between Dylan B and Knopfler M.
The songs are all perfectly crafted and the lyrics personal, with “follow your dream” a topic that occurs in at least one song, from “Only dreamers live the dream” (in the song that takes its name from that line) to the rock ‘n’ roll-tinged Curly Wurly Boy, whose narrator has poor grades and is told to take a job at a factory.
The witty and bouncy Forgotify seems to be about a descent into the depths of a streaming service to find that one song: “I can’t pretend I’m not just a little scared / Who can tell what we might find down there?”
Intelligent and well crafted.