Edwyn Collins has had good cause to lose sleep over the past five years. In 2005 Collins, former lead singer and guitarist with early-‘80s indie-soul-new wave band Orange Juice and accomplished ‘90s solo performer, suffered a couple of strokes which, coupled with associated complications, left Collins barely able to speak and in a severely disrupted cognitive state. The man who told a generation of fop-fringed Top Of The Pops-watchers to rip it up and start again seemed to have left the artistic building forever.
With the help of friends and family, however, Collins has gradually recovered. Five years after his strokes, and with a supporting cast that includes former Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook, ‘80s contemporaries Roddy Frame and Johnny Marr, and modern day fans Barry Cadogan (Little Barrie), Nick McCarthy and Alex Kopranos (Franz Ferdinand), Collins is back with a new album, Losing Sleep.
The unifying lyrical thread of Losing Sleep is the narrative of Collins’ cognitive rehabilitation: on the title track and What’s My Role Collins is grappling with the reality of his condition; on Do It Again, Humble and Come Together, Come Today, Collins is looking forward to a world he’s only just beginning to remember. By It Dawns On Me, Collins has rediscovered the wide-eyed enthusiasm of his youth; I Still Believe In You is the tale of a boy in love, just like the first time.
On a musical level, Losing Sleep is both a step back in time and a wave. With its bouncing beat and blue-eyed soul melody the title track is as fresh as the citrus product that gave Collins his name in the pop world. The wiry edge of What Is My Role shows the contemporary pop machine for the cookie-cutter crap it’s become, Do It Again is the perfect marriage of ‘60s Motown sensibility and post-punk attitude while Humble captures the bubblegum beauty of the ‘60s LA pop industry in all its affected glory.
Ryan Jarman’s dangerously elegant lick on I Still Believe In You disguises the beauty of Collins’ pop arrangements, Over the Hill and It Dawns On Me is as 1984 in its aesthetic as eye make-up, baggy pants and teased fringes.
It’s difficult to avoid assessing the quality of Losing Sleep in the romantic context of Collins’ recuperation. Even taking that into account, there’s plenty to appreciate here. It’s good to have Edwyn Collins back in the world of songwriting.
