Ten years ago my favourite band I Am Kloot packed in; or rather, just ground to a halt. Now bassist/keyboard player Pete Jobson goes solo.

After 16 years together they played a triumphant final concert at the Royal Festival Hall – part of the Meltdown Festival curated by Guy Garvey – and just never played together again.

A decade later, having dabbled in film and TV soundtracks, and played live with Guy Garvey and Nadine Shah, their bass guitarist and keyboard player Pete Jobson is releasing a solo album.

First things first: it’s nothing like Kloot. Except that, thematically, maybe it is, with dark songs tinged with darker humour, wrapped in romantic musical soundscapes.

Most notably different is the voice: in place of John Bramwell’s caustic Mancunian wit we have the distinctly Northumbrian bass vocal of Jobson: a voice that tells the tale of two decades in smoke-filled rooms followed by late-night drinking sessions.

Imagine Serge Gainsbourgh or Leonard Cohen if they came from the Northumberland coast, grew up on Northern entertainers like Les Dawson and Jake Thackray, influenced by the music of Robert Johnson and Hank Williams, Tom Waits and Scott Walker.

Or, as Jobson says of his intimate and conversational sprechgesang: “I am passing on my experiences as I would if we were both sat together and the silence became unwelcome,” he says.

Pete plays everything but the drums on his album, from which this is the title track – Burn The Ration Books Of Love, apart from occasional contributions by Garvey. As for James Edward Cook’s video… well, watch it and see what you think.