replicant goes it alone
 as a small magic circle of our readers will know,paul vickers was the lead singer with the black and white striped dawn of the replicants.he probably still is,the way reunions and reformations spin around so fast these days:some bands get back together more times than richard burton and elizabeth tayor.
tropical favourites is a vickers solo album and something more audibly tangible than his my space presence.musically,vickers sniffs from flowers with a similar scent to the replicants,with beefheartian gusto evident in guitar angles and voice on the opening umbrella proppella,the car horns of rio and spike,which sound  like distant cousins of doc at the radar statsion (knacked old twits is a 47 second blimp!).saying that ,the banjo plucked majesty of the balled of bess houdini is a treat ,while body cogs slows down the pace to ballad style and,with vickers voice electronically treated (like chers life after love)its a really compelling four minutes.whether anyone other than his immediate family or replicants fans will embrace this offering is hard to tell.that siad,that vickers continues to ehter the lists to vocally joust is to be commended.
ian shirley.record collector.