A Lullaby EP – Phil Wilson (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

As Phil continues his hazy pop odyssey with another small but perfectly formed batch of songs you realise something profoundly important about the man at the heart of the music. He understands what guitar pop music is about. I don’t just mean that he knows what makes a good tune, that was never in doubt, but he understands what lies at the heart of the old guitar pop dream – guitar pop trying to be guitar pop, not those grand and misguided pretentions of trying to be big, bad rock music.

Perfect pop is rare, pop that really makes you swoon and dream – from The Monkees to Teenage Fanclub, The Lightning Seeds to XTC and on the strength of the two releases which have crossed my path this year Phil Wilson can be added to that exalted clan. Across his three songs he builds sonorous dreamscapes, fills them with lush harmonies, chiming guitars and neo-psychedelic hazes, sails just close enough to trippy acid era Beatles and reminds me to play my Church albums more.

Short, sweet, accessible and beautiful. Were you really expecting anything less?