Baxter Dury: Mr Maserati – Like father, like son

Note the "best of" tag and not "greatest hits". Such is the way for many songwriters and singers these days when their work is defined in creative and not commercial terms. It was probably always going to be that way for Baxter Dury.

As the son of the reasonably successful late-1970s British pop star Ian Dury (who had three Top 10 UK singles and two Top 5 UK albums in that era), he was hardly going to ride along on the coattails of his father, was he? Surely, Dury snr's cockney linguistics and ribald music hall ditties (we think you can guess what he might have rhymed that word with) would be a once-off? Apparently not, as Dury jnr is the epitome of an apple falling not very far from the tree.

Resemblances duly noted (and if you can ever remove the obvious influences and the uncannily familiar spoken-word style from your head), there is a cheery, idiosyncratic, disco-like continuation of his father’s observational work, although the worldview here is scarred by far less benevolent London scenarios. Songs such as Miami, Other Men’s Girls, Palm Trees, Carla’s Got a Boyfriend and Oi (which should really be called Hit Me With Your Memory Stick, such are the parental reference points) brim with dodgy doses of high life and too many comedowns. Result? The son did good.