Gene will always be remembered as the poor man’s Smiths, which is unfair, for they created some fine songs themselves and the ‘Drawn To The Deep End’ album still stands as a classic. The accusation came, of course, from the fact that Martin Rossiter’s voice was similar to that of Steven Morrissey. Well it’s eleven years since the last Gene album and I know not what Mr. Rossiter has been doing with himself, but to prove he’s no Reggie Perrin like his great uncle, he’s just released his first solo effort. It’s called ‘The Defenestration Of St. Martin’ and his voice is still like Morrissey’s not surprisingly. The material is far more sombre and detached that Gene and the instrumentation is pretty much all piano (apart from the very last minute, when he finds his guitar). That means it isn’t as good as the Gene material but good it remains. Track herewith.
