Re-Set
Guess we’re not in this ol’ house any more…
Now hurtling towards his 80th birthday, singerforget, regularly played Communist Party benefits in his early days — is undergoing a remarkable renaissance in the winter of his career. ‘Echoes Of Our Times’ (2016) was a distinctly British take on Americana. On new album ‘Re-Set’ he’s more sparse still. Guitars twang (, a tribute to his mother, glides like the Twin Peaks theme); is done with just voice and piano; grapples with climate change; channels Tom Petty. Perhaps best of all, the angry, hoarse-voiced links the forced emigration of 18th-century Cornish miners with contemporary refugee displacement. It wouldn’t be out of place on a Levellers album. It’s a mystery why he’s waited so long to blossom; the Top 10 hits began to dry up after 1985’s . If only he’d taken this direction then.
