Len Parrot's Memorial Lift

Amazon.co.uk Len Parrott's Memorial Lift is the debut album from Baxter Dury, son of the late Ian Dury. His decision to take up the family trade is a bold one. His father was one of the most distinctive presences unleashed by punk, and a tough act to follow, on or off record. The younger Dury does not share his father's fondness for souped-up reggae, ska, jazz or a robust cockney vernacular--Len Parrott's Memorial Lift is a work of lyrically opaque stoner electronica whose influences are almost exclusively American--but the family knack for producing memorable pop is discernible. Recent albums by Mercury Rev, the Flaming Lips and especially Grandaddy loom large in the background of Len Parrott's Memorial Lift, but there is more going on here than studied homage. Dury is a natural tunesmith and a confident composer with a knack for inventive arrangements. "Auntie Jane", "Beneath the Underdog" and "Oscar Brown" (which steals affectionately from Lou Reed's "Oh Sweet Nuthin'") are all beguiling sprawls of sound scattered with moments of startling beauty. Len Parrott's Memorial Lift is a tremendous debut. --Andrew Mueller