Richard Dawson (raucous experimental UK folk racket w/ intense picaresque realness vox)

this is so great obv :)

jogging is just so amazing still

hmm. it seems to frontload the best stuff

still good!

'Fulfilment Centre' tho.

The entire Kurdish people have had a brick put through their kitchen window :(

Can't really think of another musician who so accurately captures what it's like to live in our world right now.

I was just thinking, prompted by his calling a track heart emoji, that there's a similar eye for the details of contemporary pains on the superb default genders album (aoty)

will have to check it out

Wherein he reveals his favourite albums:

https://thequietus.com/articles/27269-richard-dawson-interview-favourite-music

that is one of the most interesting and 'not heard; better check' bakers dozens ever. dicky daws is the coolest man alive

I've got a holy trinity of music, which is Eliane Radigue, Sun Ra and Circle. I could happily lose everything else and I think I'd be ok.

<333

I'm in two minds about this album. Much as I love Richard Dawson's work, I always appreciate it best when I'm reading the lyrics along with the music and that's why watching the video for 'Jogging' works so well.
I'm not sure how well this works as something I can just play and enjoy without the lyric sheet.
Enjoying the way each song is a little short story in itself, like a mini Mike Leigh movie. But as with so many writers of short stories, he has a tendency to rely on the same tricks, and occasionally condescends in a 'look at these poor souls and their rough lives' kind of way.
Opener, 'Civil Servant', aims for the same levels of kitchen-sink bathos as 'Jogging', supplementing the 'British Red Cross' for 'Call of Duty'. But the story of the beleagured council worker lacks 'Jogging''s subtelty, and strays into uncharacteristically sith-form angstiness.
More interesting are 'Two Halves' (in which a young foootball player worries about failing in front of his pushy father), and 'Heart Emoji', in which the creeping, ponderous music mimics the murderous thoughts of the song's jilted lover.

*sixth-form, not sith. That would be interesting and very Dawson

yeah as I said, this album isn't nearly as good as the last two, but Jogging is absolutely incredible and I also really love Civil Servant

i'm finding the new record quite difficult so far, his lyrics and sense of melody seem as great as ever but the arrangements and musical palette can feel quite odd and it's not as rich and full-sounding as peasant. some of it is very plodding and i'm not really into the dissonant stabbing. i don't really expect to love it as much as peasant but i hope it'll open up more to me

are his pre-nothing important records worth checking out btw? i'm just realising that i've never really heard anyone mention them much ever

they are. 'the magic bridge' has some amazing playing (and it has 'black dog in the sky' on it ffs) and 'the glass trunk' has some truly wonderful a cappella songs that showcase his voice and storytelling powers

I would like to give Peasant another go. I need to read along with it I guess

What imago says xpost. The Magic Bridge is amazing. Black Dog..., Wooden Bag and We Picked Apple's... are some of his best songs.

On second listen of the new one. Enjoying it. But it's no match for Peasant. So far.

I'm enjoying it more too. I'm wondering if I'd like it a bit more if Civil Servant had been left off though. I guess it works as a nice scene-setter, but lyrically it doesn't do anything more than Jogging and Fulfilment Centre already do a lot better

has one of the strongest melodies on the album though

I find the 'I refuse refuse refuse!' bit a bit cringey though eeeeh... and it is a strong melody but Dawson's vocals are just a bit much

digging into this properly. come fully round on jogging with how the album kinda repurposes pub rock and shitty synth effects. black triangle by far the standout for me.

not a patch on peasant tho

indeed. he did a reddit AMA the other night, need to read that

"Civil Servant" is hilarious. I must check this album out

think the less overtly 'state of the nation'-y parts are its strongest. was expecting a dawson song titled freshers ball to be too real, fortunately hit pretty hard in a different way

from the ama re black triangle

the whole ufo sighting was something that really happened to me and my pal neil. the song is completely as it happened right up to the point where neil lives in a barn conversion. so even though it uses this experience, it's not about me........

"Robert Wyatt doing George Benson" is a wonderful observation.

― charlie h, Friday, January 30, 2015 8:33 PM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

vile stuff really is the best song ever made, isn't it?

What a crazy selection of favorite albums, there were two on there I couldn't even find online (and not the one he said you can't find online).

vile stuff really is the best song ever made, isn't it?

― devvvine, Sunday, October 20, 2019 2:43 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

its a close-run thing with 'nothing important' but yeah

I voted for Person Pitch. That and Feels are fading for me but still like them very much.

Love the images!

lol I doubt either of his first two albums will place.

if dicky dawson doesn't double-up come the 10's poll then i'm banning everyone

Hah. It's been a long weekend...

(Agree The Vile Stuff is damn well perfect.)

Worth a read:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/oct/26/richard-dawson-king-of-uneasy-listening-2020-album-interview

Reveals he has begun work on the next album

ty for that! don't remotely agree with the guardian framing this as his breakout masterpiece though

Yeah, for me that was Peasant, which must have significantly widened his audience. But 2020 seems to be getting even more mainstream attention.

while NI is probably my favourite album of the decade, i can fully buy Peasant as his breakout moment yeah. mainstream is always slow to pick up on these things but RYM and the wider nerd community got on board at Peasant

imo peasant sounds way more accessible than the nu one

Crazy talk. The new one is may more accessible on several levels (not leats that's it's way easier to identify with totally relatable stories about people who live now versus people who lived 1400 years ago, never mind tunes and arrangements), and is totally the breakout record. Peasant is the one that hinted a breakout was possible, but it didn't go over the parapet.

Yeah, lots of people (my boss included) seem to be very familiar with Jogging. It's been getting a lot of Radio 6 airplay whereas I think Peasant was really a cult thing

i meant purely the arrangements and how it sounds, the ugliness of how jogging sounds compared to a song like weaver. not denying the the hooks and lyrics are more accessible.

working from a base of what wld my mum prefer so good chance i am talking nonsense

Shades of how my other Favourite Current Artist, Weyes Blood, had to release three incredible albums in a row before the powers that be really caught on. (And as with Dawson, the one that pushed her over the edge might not be her best, although in her case it's much more arguable)

Finally got a copy of Nothing Important yesterday, bought direct from Domino after reconciling myself to the fact that it will A: never be cheap online and B: never be in stock in my local HMV again.

So apart from The Vile Stuff it all sounds basically like unlistenable improvised torture to me right now, but HOLY SHIT I've listened to The Vile Stuff about 6 times in a row and WTF

What's it doing?! It's a 16-minute raga about a school trip that somehow finds a level of emotional intensity that is completely unwarranted. It makes Venus In Furs sound like Scouting For Girls. It makes a lyric about Newcastle United wallpaper sound like something occult.

Wow.

It's a brilliant song. The bit about him spacing out and having visions as he stares at his Newcastle United poster is something else

He has a visual disability that brings such visions about

Wait until the title-track clicks...