Album Review

Paul Dixon – Geometrical Lines

• 11th Apr 2008

For a song that owes its existence to a lost bet, Geometrical Lines wasn’t on a winning streak to start off. Parallels aside, Paul Dixon’s jolly, jerky indie pop is the kind of thing Topshop girls love and, being a teenager himself, he’s best placed to appeal to the pocket-money-heavy demographic.

Like west London’s answer to jumpy Jack Peñate, Paul hiccups his way through a full two and a half minutes of perky pop in an accent that one suspects is not the one he grew up with. A small quibble perhaps, but polishing tunes as much as boyish mockney will get you further along the road to Good Shoes or The Maccabees. In the same vein, though Paul’s MySpace cites a potpourri of influences from French rap to Radiohead, the tracks offered merely cover ground already staked out by the catchy hooks and verbal quirks of The Kooks and Arctic Monkeys.

Unlike the friend and subject of the song, it can’t honestly be said that Geometrical Lines “manages to make something original from a process so calculated”. Though if it’s as good at sticking in people’s heads as in my CD drive, he’ll go far.