His first solo album, 1983's The Naked Shakespeare, featured a lush sound crafted by XTC's Andy Partridge, but subsequent efforts seemed overproduced. Blegvad started to pare back on the second half of 1990's King Strut and Other Stories, but here he finally strikes the perfect balance between acoustic guitar and vocals, and flashy musicianship. Bassist John Greaves and drummer Chris Cutler, both veterans of the avant-garde rock group Henry Cow, drive 15 tunes and skillfully incorporate elements of country, free-form jazz and straight-ahead rock.

The songs are variations of existential musings that follow major life events. The bouncy "Daughter" is the complaint of a father who can't stop spoiling his child ("Everything she sees/She says she wants/Everything she says she wants/I see she gets"). The opener "Special Delivery" is a John Lennon-style call to see beyond the superficial workaday world. Even when the artist whines a bit about his underdog career status on "Something Else (Is Working Harder)," his observations are funny, catchy and universal. Who hasn't woken up for work one morning and felt that it just ain't worth the effort? Every cult hero should be this accessible and this deserving of the title. (RS 728)

JIM DEROGATIS