Pete Fij’s debut solo album, Up’s the New Down is a sharp set of songs that sees the former Adorable front man back in the ring for the first time in quite a while. Hip-swinging yet laidback, self-aware but still cool, it’s a disc that may be reflective but still has plenty of zing about it. Given that it’s a good 30 years since he was being touted as a possible "Next Big Thing", he’s surprisingly better preserved than plenty of other veterans of those heady times too.
Adorable were the Creation band that Noel Gallagher famously berated Alan McGee for cutting loose but Pete has never totally disappeared into the wilderness – having initially formed post-Britpoppers Polak and subsequently joining up with Terry Bickers of House of Love and Levitation fame. Up’s the New Down, however, sees him rather more seriously limbering up making his mark once again.
This album is emphatically no lazy attempt to trade on past glories though and while it isn’t without influences, they aren’t worn especially heavily. Where once there were fuzzy guitars and a widescreen sound, Pete’s songs are now more refined and somewhat sharper. Where there was once a hint of miserabilism, he seems rather more optimistic as he sings of ditching the frown, getting happy and embracing life and love. So, clearly things have been looking up in recent times.
Opening track, “Love’s Coming Back” sets something of a precedent – with a hint of primetime Jesus and Mary Chain to power things along. While “Complicated” takes a hard look at lust after the first flower of youth is something of a distant memory, before subsequently blooming into love during “Kitchen Disco”. Of course, with age often comes a degree of doubt and on the fine “Fragments”, Pete freely admits that “I was whole but now I’m incomplete”. However, that’s clearly made for a life that’s been lived a fair bit and some fine songwriting to boot.
