I promised you more frequent posts, and also a review of Eg’s newest album, “Adventure Man”. Before I brave the ash cloud and jet off on holiday I’m determined to do both, and also line up a few wee posts to appear automagically while I’m away.

Eg’s almost done the pop star thing himself – he was the drummer in Brother Beyond until they signed to Stock, Aitken & Waterman, and was half responsible for the best pop record no-one’s ever heard of in 1991 (Eg & Alice’s “24 Years Of Hunger”). Since then, other than a solo album every 10 years or so, he’s been content to write pop songs for other people (James Blunt, Will Young, Duffy, Kylie, James Morrison, Take That etc)

But thankfully he finds the time to record himself, and his records are always enjoyable. Some of the tracks on this new one are quirkier than the top ten would probably live with (Weird Friendless Kid, for example) and I wonder how many of these tracks were originally intended for others to sing, and how many were written with this album in mind.

The highlights for me are “But California”, the album’s opener which starts tentatively but builds momentum beautifully (is that Alice on backing vocals?) and “Broken” which I’m amazed wasn’t a huge hit.

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Buy “Adventure Man” here