The Golden D

This is decidedly not for those who require slick and flawless recordings. It's not particularly an album for those who demand sheer brilliance every step of the way, either. For all its sonic oddities, The Golden D doesn't always have songs that rise far beyond mere ambition.

it paints crudely and schematically a portrait of the artist as messed-up, disillusioned, self-indulgent twerp with an unhealthy appreciation of the mid-'80s US guitar underground, whose demo-quality doodlings (Graham plays, sings, produces and paints everything. And all to a rather average standard) should probably have never seen the light of day.

An endearingly petulant collection of nasty hardcore guitar tunes.

Whereas the first solo effort was somewhat lo-fi and reminiscent of Lou Barlow, Golden D, which is named after the musical chord, focuses on rock -- the hard and fast variety -- and suggests Sonic Youth and Sex Pistols.

Too often Coxon's sketches-in-song come off as coy experiments -- fascinating to himself, perhaps, but holding little interest for those of us outside the lab.