The Black Book of the Universe, the debut album from Simon Carter, previously the front man for critically acclaimed band The Cops, is an adventurous and igniting collection of Americana inspired songs, collated to illustrate a voyage that audience’s would have only been daring enough to create as infants. Combining the expressive techniques that were exploited in music’s hey day and killer songwriting, Carter has penned an album that takes on a life of it’s own.

With resemblances to The Eagles’ most cherished reverberated guitar melodies and America’s imagery and storytelling, The Black Book of the Universe rebels against fashionable beat-forced music of today and highlights the near forgotten beauty of musical expressionism. His songs design ethereal and panoramic scores which re-open a gateway to the purity of classic songwriting to a society that is blinded by the four-on-the-floor in which today’s music is so inclined.

The stirring “Hunters Moon” dives to the heart of ‘en voyage’ and encourages voyeurism of one’s surroundings. Using polyphonic guitar voices and vocal harmonies, a celestial landscape is created to whisk away our imagination beyond the land in which we reside. With a spiraling chorus that takes your breath away, the expertise of Carter’s songwriting is displayed beautifully by the incredible band that he has united for this expedition

“Hard Rain”, the first single off the album is what Simon calls the bridge between The Cops and his solo material. A more pop infused summer hit with likings to The Beatles and The Kinks, it introduces the marvelously executed platform in which his album is painted around.

The lyrical storytelling in “Arizona” paints a desolate and sun-blinded desert in which any extra minute spent pulls you further away from friendy surroundings. Although, with the stirring sound of the steel guitar and carefree honky-tonk like piano, the song holds a jovial spirit and leads the march towards the core of the wilderness.

With the melodic voicing of “Grey Matters” and the thematic super beast of “The Black Book of the Universe” in which the album title spawns from, this album is a cinematic and engaging collective that sculpts a nostalgic yet timeless album which is to be eagerly released in early 2010.