Two COVID related albums caught my attention in recent weeks.
One of them brimming with bristling brio, the other packed with very personal reflections. Both of them, despite their different music styles, bursting with energy and anger and overflowing with punk attitude.
One of these albums is the debut from the remarkable Dead Sheeran. Draw a Venn diagram of John Cooper Clarke, Sleaford Mods and IDLES and you’ve pretty much got the picture. The other is from the grandaddy of punk, the punk rock warlord himself, TV Smith. When so called icons of the first wave of punk, like the washed up MAGA loving controversial-for-the-sake-of-it muppet Lydon are playing to the gallery, Smith has quietly unleashed a monster. An album that pulls no punches and reflects his thoughts and personal experiences having been impacted directly with a diagnosis of COVID 19.
Dead Sheeran
A National Disgrace follows on from Dead Sheeran’s EP earlier in the year and is a continuation of a theme. In particular, a direct link to the EP is Things Weren’t Better in the Eighties, a reworking and turning on the head of Things WERE Better in the Eighties. Each version its own reflection on what was bad and good from the eighties. You choose. What’s your perspective?
Pick a target, and Sheeran is already there. The album reflects the shitstorm that 2020 has become. He also signals an uncertain future – we’ve still got Brexit to contend with (tackled by Mr Sheeran on Pick For Britain)
Can Things Get Any Worse?
Can Things Get Any Worse? opens the album and sets the scene, Dead Sheeran singing over a series of blips, beeps and electronic drum beats. He isn’t sparing in his targets, both attacking the recumbent currently residing in No 10 and his merry bunch of lying bandits but also the “stupid cunts” picking up the COVID in the pub. The attack continues in Flytippin’ an astute observation on the (literal) state of the nation.
Anti-maskers and Brexiteers take a hit on the closing track Keep Your Distance. “Stop complaining, put on your fucking mask, you daft twat, and get away from me”. Somewhat relevant as we leave 2020 with news of a vaccine and a potential end to COVID 19, but with the uncertainty of Brexit still ahead. And the twat in No10 and his bunch of wastrels seemingly unable to negotiate their way out of a paper bag (or a fridge).
Dead Sheeran bandcamp
Dead Sheeran Facebook
TV Smith
In many ways Lockdown Holiday is an entirely different affair, but ultimately similar in its themes. Musically it is at the other end of the spectrum. Replace beeps, blips and beats with an acoustic guitar and you might expect an altogether more sober affair. Think again, this is TV Smith we’re talking about.
The album is an astute selection of observations of life in 2020 inspired by the personal impact COVID 19 had on his life.
“From my sickbed I watched with utter disbelief as the mismanagement of the situation got worse and worse, and when I started to feel well enough again, I did what any writer would have done: I began to write about what was happening”
A man who can put more passion and venom into an acoustic led ballad than anyone else. Smith has always had a way with words, being one of punk’s premier division songwriters, and this album is no different. Strummer has been labelled as the punk rock warlord, but the title could easily be used to describe TV Smith. This is a collection of some of the most potent songs from the TV Smith catalogue. It is an essential document of the strangest of years in my living memory.
The Good Old Days?
Reflecting a theme from Things Weren’t Better in the Eighties from the Dead Sheeran album, Smith has a similar track on his album. Lets Go Back to the Good Old Days is a seemingly joyful upbeat number until you listen to the cutting lyrics. They illustrate the ridiculousness of the attitude of the blinkered Brexiteers, statue defenders and right-wing racists but are also a comment on those who sit comfortably in their own little lives and ”don’t make waves”.
No stone is left unturned on this hard-hitting selection of songs. From the inspirational and hopeful positivity and personal resilience in “Bounce Back”, to the job losses, crumbling economy and people left on the scrap heap as a result of the lockdown – “Who’s gonna pay?” – of the title track. And then the bittersweet paradox of The Lucky Ones There is not a weak song on this album. Absolutely no filler, every single has a reason for being. Every song has heartfelt meaning and is delivered with a fervent passion.
The fumbling reaction to the crisis is reflected The Race for Last Place which presciently feels like an accurate description of the failing Brexit talks which look more and more likely to end in no deal.
Send in the Clown
Keeping the best to last, the pièce de resistance on this album is Tim coming over all Neil Diamond for a moment with Send in the Clown. As if you couldn’t guess, this is a shrewdly worded song dedicated to the “lying through his teeth” ill-fitting be-suited, permanently vacuous “floppy haired fop” in No 10. Inspired.
TV Smith website
TV Smith facebook
I’m sure this year will live long in people’s memories for all the wrong reasons. These two albums are essential documents of a time I’m sure we will all hope is never repeated in our lifetimes. The last word? I know music fans who have been known to cry “keep the politics out of music”. What? And miss out on two of the strongest albums of the year? I say, fuck that, bring it on.
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