SIMON DUFF recommends a recording of Arvo Part that takes the listener on a pilgrimage through seemingly distant times and events of the Bible
Album reviews with IAN SINCLAIR: July 3, 2023
New releases from Bonny Doon, Speech Debelle and Jacob Young
JENNY FARRELL relishes an intimate memoir about growing up in the household of the great Irish communist and playwright Sean O’Casey
SIAN LEWIS relishes a comprehensive account of high rise social housing in Britain by prize-winning social and political historian Holly Smith
SIMON PARSONS feels a little overwhelmed by the joke count of an ebullient production that manages to convey Stoker’s Dracula without corpsing
SYLVIA HIKINS enjoys a varied Scouse alternative to traditional pantomimes
Rereleases from The Pentangle, The Charlie Daniels Band, and Cousins and Willoughby
Bonny Doon
Let There Be Music
(Anti-)
★★★★
WHAT a pleasure this album is – the third from US band Bonny Doon.
Fans of sad white boy songwriters from across the pond like David Berman, Joe Pernice and Frontier Ruckus’s Matthew Milia will immediately feel at home with the warm melancholy created by Bobby Colombo (vocals, guitar), Bill Lennox (vocals, guitar) and Jake Kmiecik (drums).
Like the aforementioned artists, the Detroit-born three-piece trade in a poppy Americana, from the super catchy bar room piano on yearning opener San Francisco to the unlikely positivity of the title track. The tired-sounding You Can’t Stay The Same could be a track on The Jayhawks’ 1992 altcountry classic Hollywood Town Hall.
Similar stories
New releases from Allo Darlin’, Loyle Carner and Mike Polizze
New releases from Ibex Band, Lucy Dacus, and Various Artists
Reviews of Ella Fitzgerald, My Morning Jacket, and Toria Wooff
New releases from Nadia Reid, Manic Street Preachers and Mathias Eick