Happiness Is A Chilled 'Gun'

After seeing her in concert last week, I decided to investigate the Mercury Prize-nominated Quixotic by Martina Topley-Bird. As with the live set, it opens with the brief a capella 'Intro' (hey, wacky title) before storming into the punchy blues rock of first single 'Need One'. Things then threaten to go a little mainstream MOR with a triptych of ballads before the David Holmes-produced 'Too Tough To Die' brings matters back to the dark funk territory with which Martina made her name during her collaborations with ex-boyfriend Tricky.

The Trickster himself rears his head by co-writing and delivering his trademark rasping backing vocals on 'Ragga' (his sole contribution to proceedings). But unusually Martina leaves the best tracks to the end - blissed-out rave anthem 'I Still Feel' and the David Arnold-produced 'Stevie's (Days Of A Gun)' which delivers the album's stunning coda.

This last track is as intricately constructed as anything off the last Radiohead album, and elicits fully the exquisite subtleties of Topley-Bird's voice and brings the album to a tense, atmospheric climax. Such is its brilliance it reduces the rest of the album to mere foreshadowing but transforms the record in one stroke from a diverting curio to an essential purchase.

So coffeetable is back, then: but this time there's no room for coasters.