The Fratellis' front man unleashes his inner crooner on his second solo album
After roughhousing it across five albums with Scottish band The Fratellis, Jon Fratelli takes a detour down a more laidback and countrified route on his second solo release. He actually recorded this album as far back as 2011 but shelved it to concentrate on the Fratellis. Re-recorded last summer, Bright Night Lights now has a very lovely twilight quality with echoes of Glen Campbell, Roy Orbison, Tom Waits and maybe even bard of Sheffield Richard Hawley.
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On opener Serenade In Vain, a sentimental orchestral overture with pedal steel and twinkling piano, he’s "Casanova carved in ice", the title track is like a drive down a rain-soaked street in northern England, the neon blurring on the window screen, while album stand-out In From The Cold has something of the tobacco-stained rumble of Waits, all the while that lonesome pedal steel guitar yearning away in the background.
This more sedate and wise Fratelli is like a bar fly reflecting on his life as the world passes by on a summer’s afternoon. Winningly downbeat, there’s a gentle fluidity to these swooningly romantic tunes.
Alan Corr @CorrAlan2
