He’s kept us waiting – 40 years into his career with China Crisis, Gary Daly has just released his first solo album
Gary Daly is a prolific songwriter, of that there’s no doubt. Think Tragedy And Mystery, Christian, King In A Catholic Style (Wake Up), Arizona Sky, Black Man Ray and a hundred other China Crisis songs on which he has a credit. Yet the revival of his band’s live fortunes – China Crisis have at least 70 gigs booked for this year alone – has meant that many of his written works don’t get the chance to reach ‘Possible Pop Song’ status. That’s about to change with his debut solo album, though. Gone From Here has been such a long time coming, and has such a pedigree of musicians and producers involved, that you can almost anticipate the quality. Daly has drafted in favours, fans and Grammy winners – plus a sackload of old synths from the China’s debut recordings – and sprinkled the whole work with a summery and melancholic charm that makes it an album that will be not only be adored by vintage Crisis lovers, but one that their children might well embrace, too.
Album opener Write Your Wrongs sets out an electronic stall, with drum sounds that have been missing since 1983, while tracks like I Work Alone maintain a definite synthpop vibe. Between these, however, beautiful and more acoustic tracks often surface. There’s Of Make Do And Mend with its delicate classical sensibilities, while Carousel Of Stars takes you on another journey entirely, a collaboration with It’s Immaterial’s John Campbell, complete with his distinctive vocals. Low Tide is perhaps the most obvious Crisis-alike track here, but then there’s In The Cloudy Domain, a song that pushes you up to completely unexpected highs. With its huge vocal range, Daly would love to see Adele give it a go – “she’d have the whole world in tears if she sang that,” he later laughs (and he’s not wrong) – it’s yet another of the album’s varied highlights.