An unlikely success story, Solid Silver is a triumph for grey-bearded folk-club journeyman Mike Silver and very definitely something of a fillip for little guys on little labels everywhere. In an era of great statistical predictability--where big silly money, strategic marketing and youth brainwashing rule the pop roost--newcomer (though he was briefly signed to Elton John"s Rocket Records in 1973) Mike Silver is a veritable anathema. Not as good looking as Robbie Williams, almost as pensionable as Sir Mick Jagger and about as likely to condescend to appear on Top of the Pops as the Clash, singer-songwriter Silver appears to have burst out of Nowheresville and right into the homes of the UK"s sensitive, middle-aged intelligentsia with some engagingly scripted songs about love breaking down, moving house, the loneliness of old folks homes and foreign travel, all of which avoid the pratfalls of grand emotional gesturing by honing in on the finer details of humdrum activity and everyday dialogue. Not bad at all for a hitherto-unacknowledged Cornwall-based chap whose voice can be likened to Peter Gabriel gone country ("Angel in Deep Shadow"), whose muse is a little like James Taylor (only British and rather more prone to calculated philosophical resignation) and whose songs (particularly "Not a Matter of Pride") seem to want to make Radio 2 DJs shout with unbridled admiration. --Kevin Maidment