9th & 13th

Collaborations between novelists and songwriters are rare, the only persuasive argument that they can bear fruit being the substantial body of work recorded by Pete Atkin with lyrics by Clive James. 9th & 13th has even fewer precedents in that the novelist Jonathan Coe's role here is solely to read out extracts from his hugely enjoyable best-selling novel The Rotters' Club, with or without accompaniment by Louis Philippe and pianist Danny Manners. The novel has a musical theme (as does the title, which refers to a seductively ambiguous chord), though most of the extracts read — and occasionally acted — out here concern its adolescent protagonist Benjamin's longing for the unattainable sixth-form siren Cicely. Coe, himself something of a thwarted musician, has spoken of how he aspires to find a new way of integrating music and the spoken word. Yet though such a fusion is not uncommon in the theater, it's hard to think of a single example of a rock album on which music and recitatif happily co-exist. While the principal reason for this may be the wretched standard of most rock poetry or storytelling (think Moody Blues, think Pete Townshend), there's also no getting away from the fact that spoken passages pall quickly with repetition. Added to this, Coe is a much better writer than he is a reader of his own work. There simply isn't the range of expression in his voice to add anything that isn't already on the page. As for Philippe's contributions, these largely consist of some breezy instrumental interludes, a short new song called "Somniloquy," and re-recordings of "Destination Moon" (from Delta Kiss) and "Fires Rise and Die" (from Appointment with Venus). The latter, one of Philippe's most remarkable songs, is a substantial improvement on the original and, in truth, represents the one cogent reason to seek out 9th & 13th. Perhaps as an admission of defeat, in recent years Coe has begun to write lyrics for Philippe — with infinitely more satisfying results.