EDIBLE, MATT & THE OBTUSE ANGELS - Stairgazing (Sealed) (LP)

Debut solo album from former Edible 5ft Smiths leader Matt Edible. Hull cult favourites Edible 5ft Smiths made one and a half of the greatest undiscovered albums of the noughties before burning up in a small blaze of glory. Since then Matt has fronted awesomely heavy & twisted rock combo The Holy Orders, all the while building up a collection of distinctly different songs of his own, more akin to a continuation of the Edibles catalogue. Those songs seemed set to languish in the vault until, prompted by the mundanity of life and an encounter with mortality, Matt decided they needed to be fully realised and so sought out an old friend, producer and Edibles super-fan Joe Bennett (Dreaming Spires, Co-pilgrim, Goldrush, Saint Etienne). The record itself is a swooning psychedelic pop beauty: Matt's distinctive vocal acrobatics are introduced on soaring opener "Jumping Houses" and alternative Christmas hit "Advent Beard". "Nightclubbing" is the greatest tongue-in-cheek stadium anthem Noel Gallagher never wrote, and album climax "The Healing" ebbs and flows from Bowie-esque prog piano balladry into full-on cinematic post-rock explosion. Matt's blistering guitar is to the fore, supported by Monaghan's powerful drumming and multiinstrumentalist Bennett's soaring yet ethereal production.