Daniel Rachel - Dear Friend (Dust Records) By Steve Rudd Release Date: September 27th 2004.

Daniel Rachel, as a style-conscious solo singer-songwriter, is truly to be treasured. I couldn't recommend his work more, so seek it here, seek it there. Then slip it on, stand back.. and listen. No, I mean really listen. Dear Friend is an astonishing song, crisp with twin acoustic guitar-based purity that - as a slice of uplifting melancholia - miraculously manages to be both heart-warming and heart-breaking in one fell swoop.

Imbued with a rare strain of emotional tenderness and an originally-styled song structure, Daniel's extraordinarily unforgettable voice heartily reminds of Simon Fowler's (Simon being the frontman for Ocean Colour Scene).

Coincidentally, Daniel has played some support dates with Simon, along with the likes of Billy Bragg and The Blockheads. He's also appeared on TV with Jonathan Ross, and surely with this type of quality exposure it should literally be any day now that his talents really become to be savoured by the masses. His songs are subtly epic in a charmingly modest and enchantingly humbled way, bringing to mind the type of craftily catchy indie-pop anthems that Travis continue to unveil.

What's more, the b-side to this single in An Englishman Abroad is even more tuneful and wittily stark raving mad than the title track, his imagination working on free-flowing overdrive with the resultant vocal performance and music being packed with Kinks-esque pop coolness, The Levellers' lyrical maturity and something of a tongue-in-cheek Sex Pistols-styled swagger. I'm an Englishman with a foreign tan, confesses Daniel, before launching into a quirky menu of Brit-favoured holiday food, quite possibly in tribute to Fat Les' Vindaloo. Who really knows? It's madness calling us an island when England and France are a tunnel apart.

Daniel, interestingly, used to be the frontman for a band called Rachel's Basement, but ever since the glowing reviews started to flood his way on the back of his debut solo album, A Simple Twist of Folk, he clearly hasn't looked back to those band days. He's now his own man, who can do what he wants, and who invariably will. Given the fact that the Plastic Heroes' French frontman Marc Olivier produced this CD, Daniel's clearly in great company too .. 5/5 www.danielrachel.com E-mail dustrecords@btopenworld.com for more information. Thanks!

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