Colour of the Trap

Album Review

As the non-Arctic Monkeys half of the British supergroup duo the Last Shadow Puppets, '60s-centric singer/songwriter Miles Kane crafted folky, enigmatic pop songs heavily indebted to the dark, baroque chamber pop of Scott Walker. On his 2011 debut solo album, Colour of the Trap, Kane once again delves into the psychedelic era with a connoisseur's ear for detail and comes away with another similarly ambitious collection of bluesy psych- and folk-inflected rock. In fact, with fellow Puppet Alex Turner on board as co-composer for half of the tracks, the album could very well serve as a kind of follow-up to the Puppets' 2008 debut, The Age of the Understatement. To these ends, tunes like the menacing leadoff track, "Come Closer," the bluesy acid garage of "Inhaler," and the similarly snarling "Happenstance" sound like the best Oasis songs you never heard. In fact, Kane even makes the Oasis connection explicit as Noel Gallagher sings backup on the midtempo T. Rex dead ringer "My Fantasy." Elsewhere, the singer delves into the bubblegum meets Brit-pop-sounding "Rearrange" and delivers the moody, John Lennon-sounding romantic title track ballad.