Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee: Los Angeles - A guest-packed sonic extravaganza

A quarter of a century ago James Lavelle and DJ Shadow’s Unkle unveiled a collaborative album entitled Pscyence Fiction featuring Thom Yorke, Richard Ashcroft and the Beastie Boy Mike D. David Holmes and Damon Albarn have since steered some guest-packed sonic extravaganzas, but there hasn’t been an album with such an eye-catching guest list as Los Angeles for quite a while.

The former Cure drummer Lol Tolhurst and Budgie of Siouxsie and The Banshees have spent the past few years anchoring a podcast. Jacknife Lee, the A-list producer for Snow Patrol and U2, and one-half of Telefís, with the late Cathal Coughlan, came onboard to capture the results in his home studio, which coincidentally (and conveniently for Tolhurst) happens to be in Los Angeles.

Bobby Gillespie, The Edge and James Murphy, of LCD Soundsystem, all contribute to this sprawling, experimental and occasionally brilliant collection. The pick of the crop by some distance is Bodies, featuring Lonnie Holley and the extraordinary harpist Mary Lattimore. The Edge plays on two tracks, Train With No Station and Noche Oscura, which are arguably the finest he’s been involved with in years

Tolhurst has described this album as a process of “reclaiming our art”, as being a drummer is “a bit like being a shop assistant”. Los Angeles is loosely a concept album about the City of the Angels. Goodness knows if it will be feasible to perform it live, but this trio have done more than enough to ensure any future instalments will be worth hearing.