In the late '80s, Bill Pritchard was a promising British singer/songwriter not unlike Lloyd Cole in terms of literacy and smoothness. His band Beatitude led to a working relationship with guitarist/keyboardist Tim Bradshaw and an obscure album in 1998. Pritchard made an odd electronic solo album in 2005 but nothing else until Bradshaw moved nearby and the two casually worked up A Trip to the Coast. It’s an album of pleasant midtempo tracks, with the electric guitars moving from the 12-string jangle of “Trentham” to a snarling Revolver-esque chop on “In June.” Acoustic guitars and a backing choir support the craggily sung “Paname,” while “Polly” takes a smoother acoustic approach. Each acoustic tune sounds, oddly, as if Pritchard had been taking vocal lessons from Robyn Hitchcock. For the first time in Pritchard’s career, he could be mistaken for someone else. In the case of “Polly,” this is a positive development, considering the tune's beauty. What it means to Pritchard’s future remains to be seen. But it’s worth waiting to find out.