Marshall's House

‘Marshal’s House’ is the second solo album by former Stone Roses guitarist John Squire. The follow-up to the critically and commercially acclaimed ‘Time Changes Everything’ is a monumental opus inspired by the bleak portrayal of America’s tentative steps towards modernisation found in the paintings of Edward Hopper. Written and produced by Squire himself with the aid of Simon Dawson, it was recorded in twelve days at Bryn Derwen in Wales and incorporates the talents of Squire’s live band.

The obvious apprehensive influence of Hopper’s paintings is clear on several tracks most noticeably on ‘Lighthouse And Buildings’ where his cracked voice yearns, “What are we afraid of?” and on the mournful ‘Cape Cod Morning’ where a solitary mouth organ opens a breathtakingly epic tune that recalls prime Roses in its shuffly rhythms and choppy guitar. Elsewhere opener ‘Summertime’ is a chipper Bob Dylan, ‘People In The Sun’ is funky piano led indie-pop and ‘Tables For Ladies’ sounds like the Strokes. Album highlights, though, are the REM-ish ‘Yewl Riding A Swell’ (which pilfers the piano part from ‘Everybody Hurts’) and album closer ‘Gas’, a slow burning rocker that sounds like Springsteen playing with the Doves.

‘Marshall’s House’ is a wonderful album. Squire, while not the greatest of singers, has a voice that is well worn and throaty and a guitar style that is second only to Jimmy Page in evocative beauty. His second album feels like classic Americana, full of desolate imagery but packed with warmth for its subject. A storming return to form from one of Britain’s finest talents, ‘Marshall’s House’ is the perfect stopgap before (whisper it) the Stone Roses reunion.