The solo album as relaxing time out from the pressures of the day job received an explicit reading from The House of Love’s Guy Chadwick, with the release of Lazy, Soft & Slow.

Four years after The House of Love had split, the band having seen diminishing success with every release since Shine On cracked the top 20, Guy Chadwick returned with a largely laid-back collection of smooth, easy songs that suggested he had spent the intervening period making peace with himself. Not that it was a peace that came easily: at first he formed The Madonnas, supported The Cranberries on tour, but broke up the band before recording or releasing anything. A second band went the same way; this time the band had made it as far as the studio before Chadwick canned the project.

Of the 11 tracks on Lazy, Soft & Slow just two (You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me, and In Her Heart) turn the volume and the pace up. The rest of the set consists of more or less universally gorgeous slow songs, all slide guitar and mellow Chadwick moments.