Album: Jackie Leven – Oh What a Blow that Phantom Dealt Me!

Andy Gill reviews the album in The Independent of 16 February 2007 (Cooking Vinyl). Like Nico, he says, Leven draws on literary sources for his album titles; the title, derived from Don Quixote, captures the "tortured regret and spiritual deprivation" that lurk behind his work. Unlike Nico, though, a sense of gallows humour at times spikes his melancholy. As evidence Gill quotes "Vox Humana": "I was thinking whisky as I ordered gin / It was a wise decision, and I'd do it again", followed by the darker line "But there's a lonely Scotsman crawling under my skin."

The sense of wretched solitude in songs like "Another Man's Rain" and "One Man One Guitar" is realised in a variety of settings, from the mellow Caledonian soul of "Kings of Infinite Space" to the bluesy folk-rock of "Childish Blues" and "Silver in Her Crucifix", a tribute to the late singer-songwriter Judee Sill. The equally downbeat Johnny Dowd turns up in a couple of tracks to intensify the desolation, but the weirdest piece is the version of the Rolf Harris novelty "I've Been Everywhere", adapted to a journey across Germany. Download picks: "Vox Humana", "Kings of Infinite Space", "One Man One Guitar". The text gives no readable star rating.