Philip Selway's 'Familial' drumming up a hit

Familial - By Philip Selway

Some unwritten rule of rock clearly has it that every drummer in a major band will one day go solo. From Keith Moon and Ringo to Nirvana's Dave Grohl, there have been some big heads lurking behind those kits, and they usually believe they have an album in them.

If you had to identify an exception, Philip Selway - probably the fifth most famous member of Radiohead - might have seemed a good pick. In 20 years with the world's biggest alternative band, Selway's only previous pitch for the spotlight was when he endorsed a Samaritans campaign in 1998.

But last year he contributed two tunes to Neil Finn's album The Sun Came Out. That confidence-boosting outing, combined with his mother's death and his realisation that, at 43, he isthe same age as the British Prime Minister, finds its logical conclusion in Familial.

A typical drummer's albumthis isn't. For one thing, the main characteristics are Selway's expressive vocals. For another, the message he broke away from his day job to communicate is one of stoicism and maturity and the angst that attends adult responsibility.

It's not a rock ‘n' roll thrill chase, and as a frontman, Selway has nothing to match the compelling histrionics of Radiohead's Thom Yorke. But there is something candid in well-crafted tunes such as A Simple Life. And on Beyond Reason, there are shades of Radiohead.