The new album from Richard Dawson is called 2020. And while the album, out now on Domino, might be titled after a future year, I like to think that it's also a play on the quality of the artist's vision. It's not Dawson's literal eyesight but, rather, his artistic vision, the kind of brave artistry that allows him to offer up a record that sounds utterly unlike anything you've heard in ages.
While "Two Halves" faintly echoes certain numbers from the late, under-appreciated Longpigs, the Newcastle musician is at his most pointed, and perversely humorous, on numbers like "Jogging", one of the real highlights here on 2020. Here Dawson lets his invective fly, offering wry observations on life and employment that should resonate on both sides of the Atlantic, and he does a similar thing on "The Queen's Head", a number that's at least musically a bit simpler. Elsewhere, "Dead Dog in an Alleyway" is both lovely and morose, a burst of everyday poetry that touches the soul, while the epic "Fulfillment Centre" suggests a bunch of prog records lurk in Dawson's collection, or at least a few Robert Wyatt ones. The 10-minute track wasn't as successful for this listener as the more easily-digestible stuff here, but at least Dawson took the leap and recorded it. His sound is entirely unique, and really nearly impossible to describe, frankly.
2020 is out now via Domino.
More details on Richard Dawson via his official website.
[Photo: Sally Pilkington]