Exiling himself in Nashville, where he hooked up with such resident eccentrics as
Kurt Wagner and
R. Stevie Moore,
Charlatans lead singer
Tim Burgess set about recording his second solo album, Oh No I Love You, within the comfort of his own home. Here, he let his imagination run wild, dabbling a bit in the city's indigenous country -- the kind that's a bit slicker than what's heard out in the sticks, thanks in part to those sweet strings -- but spending just as much time with '60s pop and psychedelia. Particularly when compared to
the Charlatans' appealingly journeyman work in the new millennium -- and not to mention
Burgess' own 2005 solo album,
I Believe, which adhered to his band's blueprints -- Oh No I Love You feels softer but it also is more adventurous and satisfying, the sound of a pop obsessive finally letting himself indulge in the weirder areas of his imagination. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine