STEVEN ANDREW is moved beyond words by a historical account of mining in Britain made from the words of the miners themselves
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Album reviews with Ian Sinclair: October 14, 2019
Latest releases from Kacy & Clayton, Richard Dawson and Little Scream
CAILEAN MCBRIDE welcomes a refreshing and timely study of the way officialdom creates structures that exclude LGBT+ rights and humanity
The bard mourns the loss of comrades and troubadours, and looks for consolation with Black Country Jess
CHRIS MOSS relishes the painting and the life story of a self-taught working-class artist from Warrington
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a star-studded adaptation of Ibsen’s play that is devoid of believable humanity
GORDON PARSONS is fascinated by a unique dream journal collected by a Jewish journalist in Nazi Berlin
Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade, Parthenope, Where Dragons Live and Thunderbolts* reviewed by MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE
Richard Dawson
2020
(Weird World)
★★★★★
AFTER setting 2017’s critically acclaimed album Peasant in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia, singer-songwriter Richard Dawson shifts his focus to Brexit Britain on his new record.
A song cycle of extraordinary breadth and emotional depth, it’s full of compelling and anxiety-ridden first person narratives, including a deeply unhappy civil servant, a flooded-out pub landlord and a father dropping his daughter off at university.
Two Halves is a brilliant sketch of a competitive Football Dad — “You’re not Lionel Messi, just pass the bloody ball!” — while Fulfilment Centre is an epic tale of working in an Amazon-style warehouse. “There has to be more to life than killing yourself to survive,” Dawson wails in his Geordie accent, channelling the protagonist’s fears and dreams.
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