CAIRO - $@Y (Sealed) (CD)

Rob Cottingham’s reappearance after he decided to quit Touchstone isn’t, perhaps surprisingly, under his own name, but as part of a new band, christened Cairo. The new band includes James Hards on guitar, Paul Stocker on bass, Graham Brown on drums, Cottingham himself on keys and vocals, and Rachel Hill on lead vocals. I think it’s fair to say that apart from Cottingham himself, these aren’t exactly familiar names to the majority of followers of his earlier work, and it’s an interesting decision for him to have gone in this direction. But for all the pre-release publicity that he was seeking a new sound, a lot of this album is recognisably a progression from his earlier work, both musically and lyrically.