album by a singer-songwriter that has explored themes of love, heartbreak and identity as skilfully and masterfully as Roddy Frame has on Surf. It is hard to think of an LP from the last 10 – 15 years that is so masterfully crafted, so fully realised, so enviably achieved ... Surf is, quite simply, one of the most moving, spellbinding and memorable collection of songs I have heard in recent years. The song "Small World" was used as the theme music for the BBC Television comedy series Early Doors. Frame explained at a 2012 live performance in the UK that "Crossing Newbury Street" is about the time that he spent with Jonzun in Boston, Massachusetts, US, while writing and recording "Somewhere in My Heart". Frame performed his first ever show at the Glastonbury Festival in 2003 and his next solo album Western Skies was released three years later in May 2006. Later in 2006, he released a live album called Live at Ronnie Scott's, a recording of a performance that was completed on 29 May 2005, and this was followed in 2007 by Live at The Blue Note, Osaka, another live recording of a show of 21 September 2006 in Japan. Video footage of Frame performing live solo concerts in the UK in both 2005 (Cardiff) and 2008 (Birmingham) was published on the YouTube online video-sharing platform. In preparation for Frame's next studio album, he signed to AED Records, a record label founded by musician Edwyn Collins—a close friend and collaborator of Frame—and James Endeacott. In a 2011 live performance at London's Bush Hall venue, Frame played the song "White Pony", which would later appear on his fourth solo album, and explained that it was inspired by the death of filmmaker John Hughes and the "coming-of-age" notion. Frame proceeded to record his next album at Collins's West Heath Yard studio with producer Sebastian Lewsley (Frame stated in a 2013 radio interview that Collins had been "incredibly generous".) and, in June 2013, AED Records announced an "early 2014" release date for Frame's fourth solo album. The label's name is an initialism of "Analogue Enhanced Digital" and the album was referred to as a "lovely thing". (The label name "AED" is a personal joke of Collins's.) Frame explained prior to the release of his AED album that he was "spurred" on to record another full-length solo release by a series of live