Reviewed by Tony Cummings

It's been a great couple of years for fresh new British singer/songwriters. We've recently had fine albums by Gareth Davies-Jones, Nic Paton and Mike Jenkins. Now add Dan Wheeler to the list. Those who read the small print on CDs will already recognise Dan's name as the superb session guitarist who's brought his considerable talents to albums by people like Cathy Burton, Steve Parsons and various Spring Harvest albums. But little did we suspect Dan (a) writes songs with strong melodies and lyrics full of a world illuminated with mini-epiphanies, and (b) sings them in an appealingly wistful voice. If you've been in from the start and bought Dan's 'Ten Things To Do' EP released a few months back fear not, there's only one song (the haunting "If You Ask Me To") repeated on this set. In every way, this album is a much more consistent musical ride with the improved psonics of the ICC studio and lots of Dan's session-toughened mates (Cathy and Paul Burton, Mark Prentice, Dan Boreham) bringing out the full, shimmering elegance of Dan's songs particularly on the lilting "Anything More". Lyric-wise, Dan conjures up a stream of memorable lines which hint at the vertical dimension rather than spell it out in evangelical obviousness. Yep, a fine album.

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