Reviews
Artist:Serious Child & Andy Ruddy Album: Talk About The Weather
Label: Four Left Feet
Tracks: 10
Website: https://www.fourleftfeet.co.uk
A cross-generations collaboration between impressively bearded West Sussex-based Alan Young and Bradford's Andy Ruddy, this, produced by Chris Pepper, who also contributes assorted instruments alongside Kirsty McGee on flute, cellist Peter Harvey and banjo player Jamie Francis, is a predominantly dreamy sounding affair that inevitably conjures thoughts of Simon and Garfunkel and Bon Iver.
Ruddy on piano it opens offering instructions on 'How To Dream', reminding me of Trevor Jones in its gentle melodies and interwoven soft vocals, a song about losing childhood innocence when "we were feathers on the breeze" as we get older and how we should grow together not apart. Equally mellow, with perhaps one of the gentlest sung 'fucked up' you'll hear, sung by Ruddy the rippling, puttering rhythm 'Satellites' focuses its lens on a broken relationship, leading into the cello-coloured, fingerpicked acoustic guitar work 'What Do Dreamers Do', Young on lead, poses the question of what next after you achieve your dreams (do they dream of more, or of losing everything?), ultimately resolving as an anxiety-tinged love song.
On a similar emotional theme, the title track with its insistent pulsing guitar pattern and strong Paul Simon echoes speaks of how people, well particularly the British, would rather talk about the weather than their feelings, the lyrics clearly referencing how the pandemic lockdowns exacerbated such matters ("it'd eight weeks now with nothing much to do/we're keeping busy little tasks papering over all the cracks and wondering how we're going to make it through") with a line pulled from the newspapers about the lady next door "lying on the floor crying for anyone to come" and help her back into her chair.
Given its fuelled by anger at those suggestions that creative artists should retrain and get a different job ("isn't it about time you stopped messing round"), 'Turn The Music Down' is a musically more prickly (Lennonesque?) number with a throbbing bass and drums, Young on deep lead with Ruddy complementing on falsetto. Opening with a sample from an uncredited little girl asking the grandparents to play with her, the gently loping 'Queen Of The Castle', sung by Ruddy, returns to a more tranquil musical setting with a playful lyric that again draws on childhood innocence ("teddy you're a unicorn/it's time to watch the show") while nostalgia rears its head for 'Roper Lane', sung by Young but about memories of a street in Bradford and kids in Bradford City's black and green.
Young on ukulele and Ruddy on vocals, 'All My Friends Are Famous' is a witty commentary on celebrity-obsessed culture with popular culture also under the microscope for the thumping drum beat and jaunty bounce of 'Catfishing', a cynicism-veined musing on relationships ("got my suspicions that I'm hanging on your line") sung by Young that sports the amusing line "like junk food you're never filling/but my heart is weak my stomach willing".
It closes with Ruddy accompanying himself on piano for the softly cascading notes of 'As Good As It Gets' to cello strains and tinkling keys, essentially about living your life as you want to if all you have to look forward too is already in your past and you're only serving time "in a steady decline", as he sings "if this is as good as it gets./then give me back my cigarettes". A wonderfully clement album, the listening forecast is excellent.
Mike Davies
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