2020 — Richard Dawson (2019)

Album Review; experimental folk / psych-folk

Album Artwork for 2020

If you feel like music isn’t what it used to be, it isn’t. Richard Dawson makes that a good thing. Though I caution you, first time listener, Richard Dawson’s style is different.

I like every song here. Some took longer to appreciate than others. Jogging was a track that I loved before I picked this album, I think it’s still my favorite.

1. Civil Servant: I love the drawn-out introduction. A great example of creative word painting. Listen to it to see what I’m talking about here. The two chords hammering repetitively reflects the lyrical subject of the song. Work-and Work-and Work-and Work-and Work-and Work-and Work-and Work. Can you stand it any longer?
2. The Queen’s Head: A song of a local business affected by flooding. The characters in the song create a beautifully vibrant scene. The man from the vape-shop, the butcher, the narrator. I think Dawson’s portrayal of real-world people is on par with Springsteen. Maybe less accessible than Springsteen, but no less good.
3. Two Halves: an absolutely epic tale of something mundane; Dawson’s hallmark ability. The story follows a boy playing a game of soccer who repeatedly flounders his opportunities; all the while his dad is shouting from the sidelines. The ride home is love and the finale is classic Dawson: an emotive delivery of a plain sentence, “or would you rather fish and chips”?
4. Jogging: The march has all the glory of an 80’s training montage, but with the realism of everyday life. This song journeys through mental health, work, and social issues. Culminating to an epic finale in the style of Two Halves, but this time… “We’re trying to raise a thousand pounds for the British Red Cross”!
5. Heart Emoji: Absolutely amazing poetic texture in the first verse. Subsequent verses don’t have the same power, but the first verse really makes this track stand out. I think he’s the only one who could make a heart emoji so intense.
6. Black Triangle: He weaves in UFO’s with more discussion of his divorce. Pilates class?! What a cunt. Lol. The song makes UFO’s seem a part of regular life. An excellent ballad with more great word painting at the end of the track.
7. Fulfilment Centre: This was a late-comer to my appreciations. More criticism of the work environment on par with Sinclair’s “The Jungle”. “There’s more, there has to be…”, wow. If you’ve been working a lot, this track will surely affect you.
8. Fresher’s Ball: Another late-comer to my liking. A beautiful tale of dropping his daughter off at college. Perhaps one of the better songs in terms of poetic texture.
9. No-One: So *#$%’n cool. Well, not on the surface, but this ambient track ties together the overarching, multi-album concept. PEASANT, 2020, and THE RUBY CORD are albums of a 3-part series. Each album focuses on a time period; PEASANT on the past, 2020 on the present, and THE RUBY CORD on the future (review of THE RUBY CORD here; I am listening through the series backwards 😂; given how much I’ve loved the end and middle installments, I will certainly be listening to the past of the PEASANT in the near future). Each album has a track titled No-One in the penultimate slot. For this album, it is a really nice follow-up to Fresher’s Ball and evokes the power of the empty nest syndrome.
10. Dead Dog in an Alleyway: an epic tale of social injustices accompanied by, once again, excellent poetic texture. His vocal delivery of the word “Please” here packs a punch. Anyone who disagrees is a heartless bastard.

Summary

I think that Dawson’s lyrics really stand out on an incredible level. But the musicality is not to be overlooked. It is experimental and weird, but quite genius and fitting for the lyrical content and style. Epic tales of mundane moments. Don’t miss it.

10/10