by Dave ThompsonDespite having maintained his position among Britain's finest ever songwriters since his emergence in 1964, Graham Gouldman has remained surprisingly silent on the solo front, with only one full album to his credit (the early-'80s Animalympics soundtrack) since 1968 brought his debut, The Graham Gouldman Thing. Of course, he's never had any shortage of outlets for his work, whether it's the string of hits he composed during the 1960s, the effortless brilliance of his 10cc years, or latter-day collaborations with the likes of Andrew Gold and the late Kirsty MacColl. But still, And Another Thing was long overdue, all the more so since its casual blend of warmth, sincerity, and deathless melodicism remains as captivating as he ever has. The bulk of the album is comprised of newly composed material, penned with partners as varied as Claudio Guidetti, Gary Barlow (ex-British boy band Take That), Chris Difford (Squeeze), and Suggs (Madness), and highlighted by two bona fide classics, the delightful "Can Anybody See You?" and the self-confessedly Beatles-influenced "Walking With Angels." The most immediate point of entry for older fans, however, surely lies in the three reprises that also punctuate the set: "Heartful of Soul" revisits a song he penned for the Yardbirds back in the mid-'60s; "You Stole My Love," first cut by his own band, the Mockingbirds, is revised to include the chorus from another oldie, the Mindbenders' once controversial "Schoolgirl"; and "Ready to Go Home" is plucked from the comparative obscurity of the last 10cc reunion. And Another Thing cannot, of course, begin to be compared with The Graham Gouldman Thing -- that album's contents, after all, stand as a virtual "best-of" for the entire 1960s. As a bookend to the three decades between the two albums, however, And Another Thing presents the portrait of a songwriter whom time has only tightened.