From The Desk Of Del Amitri’s Justin Currie: “Why, That’s Delightful!”

There will always be a small bunch who will never forgive Justin Currie for the sins of his former band, Del Amitri. Namely, the speed and vigor with which the group abandoned the angular new-wave-ish promise of its 1985 self-titled debut for more conventional pop inroads. Currie makes no apologies for the 17 years and five albums of smart, well-executed, comparatively middle-of-the-road Brit Invasion melodies and country-rock yearnings that followed. It even netted him and his Scottish bandmates an American hit, “Roll To Me,” in 1995. Nowadays, Currie is still living in Glasgow while nurturing an intermittent solo career that now includes The Great War (Ryko). Coming eight years after Del Amitri’s last album, it resurrects the reassuring jangle of that band as it continues Currie’s middle-age explorations of the darker recesses of the male love muscle (i.e. the heart). Currie will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with him.

Currie: I’m not really into the web. It’s like a vast irritating child who is simultaneously a deranged fan and a foaming abominator of everything. Graham Linehan, as writer or co-writer, is the man responsible for the mild, lyrical and very funny TV series Father Ted, Big Train, Black Books and The IT Crowd. Very unusually for British comedy (I know, he’s Irish, but give over), his world is devoid of misanthropy and cruelty. His attitude is reflected in his website, which is a sort of personal best of the Internet: Humanism, atheism, anti-establishment politics, absurdity and melodic-rock music seem to be his hobby horses, all of which he shares and discusses without condescension or preaching. And his comedy recommendations are useful. Through this site, I got into the brilliant Mitch Hedberg, stand-up’s Bob Dylan cross-bred with a drunken Elvis Presley. R.I.P.

Video after the jump.