Description
With his second album, Blair Dunlop sets out to prove that he is not just an excellent young guitarist but an increasingly adventurous songwriter. He composed all but one of the songs here (the final track was written by his dad, Ashley Hutchings, along with his former Albion Band colleague Ken Nicol), and the range is impressive. He starts out with a contemporary murder ballad, a story of schoolyard bullying and revenge, and moves on to deal with anything from Italian football to philosophy. The best two songs, 45s (C ’69) and 45s (C ’14), look at the history of a Soho club. The first is a tribute to the 1960s, when “prince and pauper co-exist like rock’n’roll and folk”, while the second is a bleak study of a contemporary night out. More displays of his guitar skills would have been welcome, but this is an assured and entertaining set.
