Steve Cradock Solo Album Review - ‘Travel Wild – Travel Free’ (Proper Records) by PHK

Steve Cradock is one of the hardest working people on the music scene – this year he has already undertaken a full tour with The Steve Cradock Band, co-written and released a new Ocean Colour Scene album, ‘Painting’, and has played several summer festivals both with OCS and his own band and has been part of Paul Weller’s band too. And still he finds the time to write, record and release his third solo album, ‘Travel Wild – Travel Free’, before setting off on another UK tour with Weller, a solo tour with his own band and an Ocean Colour Scene tour that takes him right up to Christmas.

‘Travel Wild – Travel Free’, with its cover shot of Steve leading a horse being ridden by Sally (perhaps representing her greater contribution to this record), is a laid back introspective album containing 13 original tracks – 7 by Steve alone, 2 co-written with Sally, 2 with Andy Crofts of The Moons, 1 with Chris Difford of Squeeze (and co-producer of The Strypes album) and 1 with Steve Pilgrim, drummer with Paul Weller’s band. And all tracks are jointly produced by Steve and Sally.

The album starts with the floating, delicate sounds of ‘Anyway The Wind Blows’ which, although not the title track, feels like a major theme for this set and is sung mainly by Sally. The pace quickens next with the radio friendly ‘Sheer Inertia’  that flies before we hear the excellent riff that brings in ‘I Am The Sea’ – a really good song that includes reverse instruments that give it a ‘Revolver’ influence/feel (and one of my favourite songs on the album)

‘The Magic Hour’ starts with a piano riff reminiscent of OCS (no surprise there) followed by an acapella segment (now that was a surprise) and continues into the main body of the song which would make a good single. ’10,000 Times’ is a heartfelt number that builds into a song with a good hook before we are treated to a short instrumental piece, ‘Out of Mist’. ‘Street Fire’ follows and this gives the feel of something more experimental (perhaps akin to what Mr. Weller has been doing on his last 3 albums?).

A really good, punchy, version of ‘Doodle Book’, a song recorded and released on OCS’s ‘Painting’ album earlier in the year, is next and features additional brass – a definite high point. This is followed by ‘Running Isn’t Funny Anymore’ and then the title track. ‘Travel Wild – Travel Free’ is another triumph of this album and, along with the seniors (Steve and Sally), we are treated to the junior Cradock contribution to great effect with Cassius playing flute and Sunny reciting a poem. This works really well and, again, this is another of my favourite songs on here.

A short instrumental piece titled ‘Elizabethan’ certainly does have a Tudor feel to it, with the album concluding with ‘Shark Fin Island’ and the slower paced ‘Dreaming My Life Away’.

As with many of the best records, ‘Travel Wild – Travel Free’ is a mixture of instant winners and slow burners (that develop their personalities with every play). Don’t expect an album of ‘Riverboat Song’ Mod rockers (is that an oxymoron?), as this is much more laid back and reflective, but it does represent Steve’s further development as a singer/frontman to add to his guitar slinging skills and includes some fine songs.