Lovesexy Review

The story is better than the record. He completed an album, decided it was spiritually wrong, pulled it days before release and made this instead in under two months as its bright counterpart. Then he pressed it as one continuous track so nobody could skip anything, which tells you how confident he was and how right he was not. Alphabet St. is superb, a stripped guitar figure and a rap section and an arrangement that keeps dropping out.

Anna Stesia is the real centre, a slow build from a bedroom scene to a genuine plea for grace, and it is one of the best vocal performances he ever gave. Around those, too much of the album is horn stabs and hectoring, with lyrics about God and temptation delivered in a tone that assumes you are already convinced. The production is dense and busy and occasionally exhausting. Two great songs, a famous sleeve, and a record more discussed than played.