Album Review: Pinball Wanderer by Andy Bell

An album of moods and grooves rather than hooks from the Ride singer and Oasis bassist hits his targets more often than not Pinball Wanderer is a rather appropriate name for Andy Bell‘s third solo album. Bell – he of the likes of Ride, Hurricane #1 and Oasis, not his Erasure namesake – obviously delights in bopping around genres, like a proverbial pinball, and as the man in control of the flippers, he hits the targets more often than not on this record. Tortured metaphors aside, there’s an impressive flow to Pinball Wanderer, a record that takes inspiration from droney kraut-rock, dreamy, almost ambient soundscapes and the kind of infectious rhythm sections that we’ve not seen the likes of since the Mani-Reni heyday of The Stone Roses.

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Perhaps every rock star who makes it big reaches a point in their career when they feel emboldened to do what the hell they like. This would certainly help explain the run of solo and collaborative projects from Ride and Oasis veteran Andy Bell over recent years, all of which have yielded music that is eclectic, playful and, more often than not, adventurous. Third solo outing pinball wanderer follows this pattern, with tracks that demonstrate Bell's versatility by encompassing spirit-of-Madchester-infused workouts, lush electronica and krautrock.

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This is getting silly now. For fans of Andy Bell's work, the past few years have been a thrilling ride, marked by a steady stream of releases across his various projects. In just the last 18 months, he has delivered two GLOK albums (one live, the other a collaboration with Timothy Clerkin ), the excellent 'Interplay' with Ride , and now his third solo album, all alongside the ongoing Mantra of the Cosmos project.

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