Matador

“The hardest fight is the one you fight alone,” intones Coombes, the onetime owner of Britpop’s finest sideburns, on the title track of his second solo album. You wouldn’t guess it. From the galloping piano of “The English Ruse” through to “Detroit”–which triumphantly distills the record’s brand of soulful AOR into six near-perfect minutes of irrepressible gospel-rock–there are abundant reminders that the former Supergrass frontman is adept at making striking out on your own look very easy indeed.