Texas - Jump On Board album review

Ninth album from Scottish soul-pop stalwarts

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Cover art for Texas - Jump On Board album

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Over 30 years since they formed, and 20 since theirWhite On Blonde/Say What You Want heyday, Texas are back to prove they still matter on this self-produced set. They’ve even rolled out Arsenal football legend Thierry Henry for the video to first single Let’s Work It Out, which nods to the band’s Caledonian pop-soul roots – think Chic via Orange Juice, or Altered Images, who were doing this sort of glossy, Glaswegian funk-lite thing back on 1983’s Bite, before Johnny McElhone left that band to form Texas with Sharleen Spiteri.

Elsewhere, Spiteri gets to live out her female icon fantasies, echoing Debbie Harry’s sublime blankness on Tell That Girl and Great Romances, Lana Del Rey’s noir fatale on Sending A Message, Chrissie Hynde’s gum-chewing insouciance on Won’t Let You Down and Stevie Nicks’ witchy woman on the danced-up Edge Of Seventeen that is Round The World.

Accomplished but derivative.

Paul Lester
Paul Lester

Paul Lester is the editor of Record Collector. He began freelancing for Melody Maker in the late 80s, and was later made Features Editor. He was a member of the team that launched Uncut Magazine, where he became Deputy Editor. In 2006 he went freelance again and has written for The Guardian, The Times, the Sunday Times, the Telegraph, Classic Rock, Q and the Jewish Chronicle. He has also written books on Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Bjork, The Verve, Gang Of Four, Wire, Lady Gaga, Robbie Williams, the Spice Girls, and Pink.