Jamie T review, The Theory of Whatever: Indie recluse is back with an evolution of his signature sleaze

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. It’s not that the indie troubadour hasn’t released anything new since his 2007 debut – he has, and much of it is just as brilliant as that first outing – but the music of Jamie Treays evokes a certain nostalgia: one shaped by cheap lager, sticky bar stools, and drunken sing-alongs. Album opener “90s cars” is a scene-setter – albeit a misleading one – that cracks the record open like a rib cage, releasing thrumming guitar lines and Treays’ idiosyncratic vocals like a gust of nostalgia. It’s doubled down on in “The Old Style Raiders”, a stirring new-wave chugger – one of several tracks produced by Hugo White, formerly of The Maccabees. Elsewhere, his humour is put to use parsing long-distance romances in the love language of taxi rides: “Her rating’s confidently a four point five.” The album ends on a mischievous note: “50,000 Unmarked Bullets” imagines the romantic affairs of North Korea’s despot Kim Jong-Un.