Whereas Andy’s previous albums had been heavy on bass and keyboards, particularly when playing totally solo, in 2021 he had a new custom guitar built which gave him the inspiration for creating a rock album with no keyboards. On this 2022 album Andy provides vocals, bass, guitars, percussion & drums and he is joined by longtime musical collaborators guitarist Michael McClure and drummer Dave Blackburn along with drummers Kyle Brian and Simon Whitbread along with Brian Donohoe who provides tenor sax on one song. Apparently, he and Dave were in his first group together, Twin Llama Band, and opening number “Ticket on the Greyhound” actually hails from those days.
In some way I find myself thinking of Jeremy Morris, as like Jeremy, Andy appears able to turn his hand to whatever style of music he wants to play, and it is up to the listener to keep up. What we have this time are some straight ahead rockers plus what would happen if XTC and Talking Heads joined forces, and David Byrne took on some of those British sensibilities and melodies. Andy has been in the States for decades now, but he still has quite a British Eighties approach to music, and this combines with the Tom Petty American approach to create an album which really does rock at time. It is when he allows himself to turn it up and move more into garage punk that this album hits hard, and I do wish there were more tracks like the opener and “Black Bic”, as they are the highlights of what again is a very enjoyable release.
Rating: 7/10
[bandcamp width=350 height=720 album=3233286261 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]
Links:
https://faunch.bandcamp.com/