Review

The13th album from the Nottingham pair has some fantastic and unusual collaborations. From the outstanding Gwendoline Christie on ‘The good life’ to the soulful if slightly concerned sounding voice of Big Special’s Joe Hicklin, on the same track. Gwendoline, more usually known for her acting capabilities showcased on ‘Wednesday’ and ‘Game of Thrones’ delivers a wonderful angst filled breakdown of a performance. Jason Williamson, vocalist of the team can sound like a dad who's been pushed beyond the limit of his patience and finally lost his shit. Except he’s lost it with society in general rather than his kids. Not accepting any more of this utter bullshit, he’s had enough. Other times though he’s more reflective and introspective. Sounding like he’s reliving some of his darkest, most embarrassing or loneliest memories. On ‘Gina was’ he tells of the embarrassment of Gina, a bully who leads a gang to rid him of his jeans and laugh at his wares. As she grows Gina continues to be a misery with a constant depressing acceptance of her lot. It is kind of one of the bleaker sounding songs. Double Diamond has us listening, out of context, to half a phone conversation between drug dealer and a the client, from the clients point of view, he's trying to get the dealer to come round to supply him but he can be bothered - “Why don’t you tell him I’m a sex worker on crack, he’ll come over then”. The lyrics sound slightly deranged and Andrew Fearn supplies a f*cking awesome bassy piano groove. Elitest G.O.A.T. has some softness and sweetness in the singing from New Zealand's ‘Aldus Harding’ to juxtapose Jason's harsh ranting. No Touch has Sue Tompkins and Jason doing a call and response to Sue's - “You’re not miserable you’re nice”, to Jason’s - “I’m not!”. There are some interesting lyrics throughout, too many good ones to mention. Don Draper has a laid back plodding groove - “Billy Smart don’t use animals he still uses clowns“. “Just tell Musk to fuck off, I’m always leaving comments on the Guardian articles but they always take them off.” were told on ‘Kill List’. The album was recorded over a few sessions split between studios in Nottingham, London and Bristol. It’s self produced by Andrew and Jason. 5 singles from the sessions were released prior to the album. There are 13 songs in all with a running time of 41 mins. It was released through Rough Trade on 16th Jan. It entered the UK album charts at number 6.