43. Richard Dawson: 2020

Released: 11 October 2019

Chosen By: Ben

Comments -

Dean - Dong Xiwen wrote, The political and artistic aspects of art should be unified, nevertheless, political standards should come first, but in the question of conceptual and artistic, political standards and artistic standards, I still place great emphasis on the latter, while merely paying lip service to the former. Though I say that I believe the direction of Socialist Realism to be the correct one, I have always felt that our average artworks are monotonous in style and lacking in form, rarely possessing the personality and emotions of the artist. I would like to think that Billy Bragg's 'Here Comes Richard' refers to Dawson.

If I think of this record in terms of a personal expression of reality, or art, it is relevant and the passages are, in part, seductive. There is always a question for me regarding the accessibility of clarity and adversely, the banality of reality. I really like the intent. I was touched by Fresher's Ball and felt addressed by Jogging. If I were Lionel Messi I might suggest Richard keeps the ball just to see what delightful pass he conjures. Great choice Ben 🌟

Stu - This LP then; I can hear the ideas falling from his mind and the lyrics are fantastic throughout! Musically it just meanders past me with little engaging me. I also don’t care for his voice. There’s plenty of artists that I don’t engage with just because of the voice. The instruments just don’t make the sounds that I like them to make!! I can see its appeal and I totally get Deans take on it! Sadly I don’t care for it and have a 1000 others LPS to buy instead of this one!!

Ben - What a great start! The first four tracks are amazing. The whole album is about an apparently good man struggling to fit in with the world (although he seems to stab his, about to leave him, partner in Heart Emoji). Does he start off as a Civil Servant and end up as a tramp being beaten up by lager louts? Jogging is the stand out tune - it bangs in and just keeps going sonically and lyrically.  Where I do struggle though, is that the sound of the guitars can be angular and sparse, and the slower songs in the second half of the record expose this and aren’t as enjoyable. As such I felt the record began to drag a bit towards the end. Perhaps if he’d have cut a couple of the slower songs out and mixed the others in between the first four tracks it would have been a star of an album, but I’m no artist so what do I know.  I’m certainly not Lionel Messi either.

Paul - This has been one of our more intriguing picks, well done Ben. Fifteen seconds in I wanted to turn it off, at the end I'm left wanting more. The vocal, the timing changes, the clashing hard rock guitar - it seems like it shouldn't work but it really does come together so well. It's probably the lyrics that do it. Whether these are stories from one person or they're different narrators it's a great view of Britain today from all sorts of angles. 

Work is covered in the boredom of Civil Servant and the terrible conditions in Fulfilment Centre. It's touched on again as the narrator describes his wellbeing routine in the magnificent Jogging. 

There's sadness in the homeless person in Dead Dog In An Alleyway, Heart Emoji (does he stab his partner or does the cold touch of the slug bring him to his senses?) and Black Triangle where the UFOlogists obsession may have cost him his marriage. 

It's not all gloom though. Two Halves is one of the all-time great football songs - the father/son dynamic is both sad and beautiful and it's a similar case in Fresher's Ball with the parent returning to an 'empty nest'. And in The Queen's Head we find out what and who's important. "How little we are."

I do agree with Ben in that it perhaps doesn't finish as strongly as it started. I've been wracking my brain over whether it should be a star album for me. Normally that would come down to whether I want to seek out more from this artist or would I like to see them live. Both those answers are 'probably' but the quality of the lyrics is the clincher and makes this a 🌟 from me.