?Newell's catalog is so big that nothing less than a box set could serve as an adequate retrospective. This 21-song compilation, though, is pretty good, with 11 songs from his Cleaners From Venus days, three by his separate group project the Brotherhood of Lizards, and seven solo cuts. Whatever the source, his songs are consistently pleasurable, melodic, and lyrically witty and insightful -- which is not the most common combination in pop music. And these songs are pop, of the very British variety, rathe...   [ read more ]

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?It's true enough that The Spirit Cage is more of the same from middle-aged Newell. But sometimes more of the same is good, and sometimes -- not that often, actually -- middle-aged is not synonymous with artistic decline or burnout. On this album, he offers a dozen perky, melodic songs that are witty without playing for laughs. It's not as {lo-fi} as his numerous cassette-only releases, but it's not overly slick either, and quite heavy on the jangly reverb guitar that he uses well.Songwise, it sounds like...   [ read more ]

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?As it was produced by XTC's Andy Partridge (who also plays most of the drums), this was Newell's first project to receive any semblance of mainstream media attention in the U.S. What he was presenting, however, differed little in essence from what he'd been doing since Cleaners From Venus started in the early '80s: tuneful pop with heart and clever lyrics that could be joyfully optimistic, whimsically satirical, or dourly cynical. In fact, a few of these songs are remakes of things that Newell had done i...   [ read more ]

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