Having established himself as a jangle-pop classicist of note with The Loft and post-C86 shoulda-beens The Weather Prophets, Pete Astor then radically changed direction. Taking a trip into left field, he went on to helm experimental, if critically-acclaimed projects The Wisdom Of Harry and Ellis Island Sound since the turn of the century.<\/p>\n
Astor has since settled into teaching, lecturing at London\u2019s University Of Westminster. However, he restarted his musical career with 2012\u2019s Songbox <\/i>and enthusiastically re-engaged with the chiming, erudite pop that first built his reputation on 2016\u2019s well-received Spilt Milk<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The logical extension of the latter title, One For The Ghost again finds Astor back in harness with Proper Ornaments\u2019 guitarist James Hoare and The Wave Pictures\u2019 rhythm section of Franic Rozycki and Jonny Helm. He\u2019s clearly stoked with his new charges too, for they roll in behind their leader with a Loft-esque verve on You Better Dream, outsider anthem Walker and the potent, rockabilly-flavoured Golden Boy.<\/p>\n
By contrast, the inherent world-weariness of Spilt Milk <\/i>again seeps through lyrically. The wry, Chris Difford-esque football analogies in the ailing relationship-related \u2018Injury Time\u2019 (\u201cthey think it\u2019s all over, it is now\u201d) show Astor has retained a keen sense of humour, yet Dead Fred and the mortality-facing titular track are befitting of a record stuffed with songs intended to both \u201ccelebrate and grieve\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Having established himself as a jangle-pop classicist of note with The Loft and post-C86 shoulda-beens The Weather Prophets, Pete Astor then radically changed direction. Taking a trip into left field, he went on to helm experimental, if critically-acclaimed projects The Wisdom Of Harry and Ellis Island Sound since the turn of the century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8023,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16],"tags":[],"issue":[10093],"class_list":["post-193394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album","category-reviews","issue-january-2018"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n