This album was my introduction to Richard Dawson, when it was the featured album on Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone on BBC Radio 6Music.
And it's still a great favourite, which I enjoy regularly.
It's an album of narrative songs about the state of Britain on the cusp of the 2020s, arguably the middle part of a trilogy, with 2017's Peasant looking back, and 2022's The Ruby Cord looking at the future.
Fine songs flow one after another, all sung and played entirely by Dawson. The opener Civil Servant details the soul destroying nature of work at the Department of Work and Pensions, and the banality of his colleagues ("I dream of bashing his head into a brainy pulp with the sellotape dispenser"), it's followed by The Queen's Head, the tale of a flooded pub from the landlord's perspective, and his hatred of the "fat-headed butcher on his soapbox", then the poignant Two Halves, the perspective of a hopeless junior footballer being watched by his father.
For me, the most powerful song is Jogging, the tale of a self employed man struggling with mental health, and trying to make sense of the world around him by jogging. Heart Emoji is a modern tale of betrayal, and it's the first one on the album that doesn't quite hit the spot for me, and I'm not sure why. Similarly, Black Triangle doesn't feel as strong as earlier songs although the heavy prog intro and middle hit the mark, and we're soon back to powerful social comment with Fulfilment Centre. Fresher's Ball is a slower, more folky story about a father delivering his daughter to university, and after a short instrumental track, the album ends with Dead Dog In An Alleyway, an uneasy listen about homelessness.
I don't feel the second half of the album is as strong as the first half, but it's still a great listen if you're looking for something a little bit out of the ordinary.
4* - a great piece of contemporary observation from a unique talent
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