I Lucifer

Stephen Coates' one-man project dedicated to preserving the art of playfully arch Anglo indie pop for a new generation takes a new turn with the great I, Lucifer -- a soundtrack to a simultaneously published novel. The author, one Glen Duncan, appears at the start briefly to deliver a nicely plummy speech about the titular character's regretful taking on of the job, and from there it's a 40-minute delight, equally giddy and melancholic. Coates' forebears, ranging from Momus and most of the El label to newer characters like White Town and Jacques, not to mention folks like Stephin Merritt and Jim Rao, are more than slightly audible at points. There's the chopped-up '20s swankiness of "Bathtime in Clerkenwell," but Coates' singing voice is a sometimes appropriately sharp combination of whispering rasp and snarky smoothie, and he has a gentle ease to his delivery that makes winners like "The Ugly and the Beautiful" and the swank "The Eternal Seduction of Eve" sparkle. When his voice comes through clearly, as on the jaunty boulevardier number "La Bete et la Belle," it's light but just strong enough to connect, and his sense of arranging for his singing is spot on. "One More Chance," a putative live recording (thanks to all the snippets of audience noise) featuring one Pinkie Maclure on counterpoint female vocals, is a real winner, a wonderful late-night-in-a-red-lit-bar croon and slow swing that Chet Baker might have liked. The soundtrack nature of the album surfaces with instrumentals like "Coming Back Down to Earth" -- if "cinematic" is the wrong word to use in this context, there's still an appreciable sense of John Barry-inflected spy movie tension. ~ Ned Raggett|