Tracklist: As Ever (4:45), The Final Star (3:12), Top Of The World (3:59), Almost There (4:00), Alcohol Sea (5:22), Rain On (3:02), Fair Weather Friend (3:46), The Sun And Moon (4:19), Sunflower Eyes (3:11), A Million Dreams (6:15)

All hail, for the King has returned! King as in KingBathmat that is. Following-up his critically well-received Son Of A Nun debut album was never going to be easy, after all, as is often said, an artist has a lifetime to prepare for their first album. Still resolutely an independent artist with no management, no promoters and no label backing, John Bassett does everything himself - writes, produces, plays all instruments, sings lead and backing vocals, designs CD sleeves, booklets, press kits and merchandise, and no doubt even makes the tea! I am still somewhat in awe that one person can do so much on limited budgets without sacrificing quality. For that is what Crowning Glory is, a very fine, quality album.

Treading familiar ground to the first album, Crowning Glory is a collection of 10 modern rock songs that are replete with instantly memorable melodies and superb musicianship and ably demonstrate that Bassett's skills as a songwriter are continuing to develop and progress. Once again, the arrangements are very full and sound like a very tight five-piece band. This time round there is a greater use of backing vocals, tracks like Rain On, Fair Weather Friend and The Sun And Moon come to life with the multi-layered harmonies. There are more obvious psychedelic influences throughout the album, not that the songs freak out in a mass of feedback and distortion, more that some of the sounds employed behind the melodies hark back to times when new electronica could first create spacey echoes and subtle distortions, could that be a theremin whining away in the background during Top Of The World?! Almost There exemplifies the psychedelic pop aspects of the album in a wonderful amalgam of influences and styles. And to top it all, it has a pretty funky beat as well!

Topping and tailing Crowning Glory are two tracks that sum up the changes that King Bathmat has undergone since Son Of A Nun. Album opener As Ever demonstrates that if anything has improved it is Bassett's singing, he is more assured and has a greater range, changes that have no doubt inspired and encouraged the more adventurous vocal arrangements. A Million Dreams provides the perfect ending, a veritable tour across genres that sums up everything I imagine John Bassett is trying to achieve.

I have a great reluctance to categorise the style of the songs as it would do nothing but demean them. Are they pop? Rock? Progressive? Well yes, and no, they contain elements of all of these categories but don't fit neatly into any of them, the proverbial square peg in the round hole. I have no hesitation in repeating the words with which I ended my review of Son Of A Nun: "this is simply a very fine album laden with great melodies, compelling songs and fine musicianship". Do yourself a favour and get yourself a copy.

Note : If you buy a copy of Crowning Glory from the KingBathmat web page, you will also receive a free multimedia CD. This contains a video for The Final Star (again, Bassett produced this very interesting video practically single-handedly, is there no end to this chap's talents?) as well as MP3 files and a variety of other links and information. The MP3 files consist of seven tracks from Son Of A Nun, four previously unreleased songs, an extended version of Sunflower Eyes as well as 10 demos, eight of which are of songs that have yet to be released. Quite a bargain really, so why are you still reading this and not heading for the KingBathmat website?!

Conclusion: 9 out of 10

Mark Hughes

John Bassett may hail from the sleepy Sussex town of Hastings, but under his King Bathmat guise his persona changes quicker than you can say "Clark Kent". A one-man army in a similar vein to Badly Drawn Boy and Simple Kid, King Bathmat's vision of a progressive rock behemoth doesn't embrace 15-minute guitar solos and Dungeons & Dragons gameplans. Instead, his version of utopia is situated on a landscape of words inspired by his own personal experiences shrouded in plaintive melodies and atmospheric noises.
Take the opening 'As Ever' for example, which could just as easily be the point where Syd Barrett and Roger Waters re-unite for one last dig at that old Floyd magic as it could be a long lost relic from a certain woolly-hatted Mancunian. Initially Bassett appears to be pining over lost love ("I said please don't go") only for the bittersweet taste of rejection to ebb through later ("You only told what you need to know and you lied in your portfolio").

Bassett's lyrical moodswings continue on 'Final Star', which starts off with the triumphant, yet frail, salvo of "Don't need your opinion, just set my soul free" before building into the kind of epic Mark Hollis reeled off with regular aplomb during Talk Talk's "serious" years.

Although 'Crowning Glory' may be a documentation of John Bassett's personal strife, musically there are some tenderly uplifting moments. The dazzling 'Rain On' has the same flawed air of invincibility many people originally associated with John Squire's Seahorses when they heard 'Love Is The Law' for the first time. 'A Million Dreams' meanwhile is the sound of Angel Gabriel emitting a fanfare of guitar and moog over a half-sung, half-spoken diatribe: "Tonight you're mine forever, like a million dreams before".

As an exercise in detailing pain and sadness, 'Crowning Glory' pours its misery down by the bucketload, yet at no point do Bassett's tales of loss and loathing become cause tensions or anxieties of an unlistenable displeasure. Instead, King Bathmat may just have sent out a warning to the middle-class safety valve of Damian Rice et al; there's a new contender in the ring, and this boy from Hastings means serious business.