For all his willingness to help out others with a guest vocal turn, it’s something of a surprise that Slipknot leader Corey Taylor (known more formally as Corey Mother Fucking Taylor) has waited until now to make a solo album, despite doing solo shows for more than a decade.
Wisely, perhaps, he recorded CMFT in Las Vegas, and shed much of the cartoon darkness that surrounds his band in favour of a dynamic, light-on-his-feet accessibility.
The result is an album packed with breathless vocals, sizzling guitars and surprisingly tight songwriting, best showcased on the rip-roaring opener HWY 666.
Without straying too far from that template, he chances his arm on a succession of styles, invariably successfully. Meine Lux is pure pop, Silverfish and Home are butch ballads, and the splendidly sweary CMFT Must Be Stopped features London rapper Kid Bookie.
Taylor hasn’t reinvented the wheel here, but he has reinvented himself.
