By DJ Monk
If you don’t know the name Duncan Reid then you do indeed have only yourself to blame, either for living in isolation for a lot longer than the rest of us or failing to read your favourite website for the past decade. But, then, it has been a while since we’ve heard from the frontman of the self-proclaimed “best power pop punk group in the world” – almost exactly three years, to be precise! Well, now he’s back with his fourth solo album… a collection of 14 songs about mortality, midlife crises, mortality, first summer holidays, mortality, midlife crises, inter-generational love affairs, politicians, mortality and midlife crises – in other words, “a little something for all the family in these dangerous and confined times”, as the man himself says.
Looking back through the ÜR archive, purely in the interests of refreshing ye old memory cells, I was reminded that, during his tenure with The Boys, Reid didn’t actually engage in any song writing, and only turned his hand to the craft when faced with the prospect of a solo career without any material… well, he’s more than made up for it since, and this collection once again testifies to his wry sense of observation, attention to detail and, of course, the absurdities of everyday life, as he draws his lyrical inspiration from random signs outside Soho pubs, equally random conversations inside pubs, overseen conversations on social media – and even the after effects of writers’ block!
The mood is set with the lively and tongue-in-cheek lead single ‘Your Future Ex-Wife’, with its twangy riff, infectious harmony and lascivious chorus. Despite its initially morose start, ‘Motherfucker’ is another glorious slice of bubblegum pop with yet another serious underlying message, while the craftsmanship of Reid’s acerbic lyrics is exemplified further on ‘Welcome To My World’, when he declares “I woke up on the wrong side of a bottle/I looked it in the eye/I wished it a good morning/no reply”: yep, we’ve all been there, done that and had the vomit-stained T-shirts to prove it. However, the best lyric on the entire album comes later, on the joyous ‘To Live Or Live Not’, when Reid proclaims “Gonna catch the first plane to Caracas… Gonna find a girl who plays maracas”: gloriously, inanely brilliant stuff all ‘round.
With ‘Don’t Blame Yourself’, Mr Reid and his bunch of Big Heads once again have brought a little ray of rock ‘n’ roll sunshine into this dreary old world, one which will leave you grinning from ear to ear, you aural cortexes jumping for joy and your body leaping around the living room like a stir-crazy loon as your reach simultaneously for another bottle and the repeat button on the stereo… It just leaves me to tell to BUY this album. Immediately. And then buy a copy for every one of your friends and family members. You’ll only have yourself to blame if you don’t…
- ‘Don’t Blame Yourself’ is released this Friday (15 May). You can get your copy HERE.
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