Bob Geldof / How to Compose Popular Songs That Will Sell

Bob Geldof
How to Compose Popular Songs That Will Sell
(Mercury)

This record is called ‘How to Compose Popular Songs That Will Sell’ or, roughly translated, “Give us Your Fucking Money”.
Opener ‘How I Roll’ treads eerily familiar ground, featuring as it does the lines “Hot town / somewhere in the city”. So that’s how he rolls then, huh? The lyrical lift is less of a nod, more of a full-body spasm in the direction of ‘60s compilation album staples The Lovin’ Spoonful. Album eleven then, doesn’t appear to find Geldof in the most imaginative mood.
Swinging pendulously from introspective Americana balladry (‘How I Roll’) to weird, spoken-word/screamo country (‘Blowfish’) doesn’t suggest someone playing fast and loose with the rules, but there are moments that shimmer through the fog of pointlessness. Once Sir Bob has finished his straining on aforementioned ‘Blowfish’, the song erupts into an Enigma-esque theatrical stormer of guitar work that’s pitched magically against a backdrop of swirling strings.
And then it’s back to the old familiar with ‘Silly Pretty Little Thing’, a silly pretty little thing that sounds like it was made for Mum’s to dance to at weddings, all joyous and saccharine and jazz-hands happy.
It’s a bit of a shame that the worst thing on Geldof’s solo album appears to be the man himself, considering that, to be fair, the music behind him contains some of the most promising and exciting moments we’ve heard so far this year.