It would have been easy for Edwyn Collins to walk into a welter of critical acclaim after the last five years he's had. Edwyn, however, is and always has been a steadfastly proud man with regards to his music and his craft, and if he was going to have people watching intently for his first post-illness recordings (and several acolytes guest singing and co-writing) they had better highlight what it is that he does best. So Losing Sleep starts with a glorious Northern Soul stomper about remaining positive throughout insecurity and continues mostly through guitar pop of a pinsharp nature, perhaps the most Orange Juice-esque music he's been involved with solo, over which Collins steadfastly refuses to feel sorry for himself. He may touch on vulnerability and the recovery process of questioning himself, but he's always been fragile to an extent and, in choosing to make his personal declaration particularly in the closing ballads, by equal amounts he's a callow optimistic satisfied for what he has (Grace, notably) Simple sentiments that needed to be made flesh, but at the same time Losing Sleep is an exercise in making sure there was no house room for complacency. It's almost like he never changed.
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Losing Sleep
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