While many of the peers of Duncan
Reid are happy to regurgitate past glories and pass them off as relevant in the
modern age he appears to have decided that travelling down that path is not
going to take him anywhere he wants to end up.
Instead he resurfaced with his
Big Heads and clutching a crackin debut in 2012 in his hands that managed to
reference his past without being bogged down by it, and simultaneously happily
laid out some clues as to what direction he would be comfortable in taking.
It could be said that he released
an album that was designed to be a bridge that could carry his fanbase from the
past into the present and ease them into a position where they would be
comfortable in joining him on a trip into the future.
And with that being successfully
done the fruits of the seeds he planted then have now come to bloom on his
tongue in cheek titled ‘The Difficult Second Album’.
A release that delivers a smorgasbord
of aural delights that will satisfy the palate of every power pop fan that ever
drew breath.
In fact scratch that.
Anyone that classes themselves as
a music fan and appreciates that pop is not a slur will find something on this
that will set their heart a flutter.
There’s some quintessential
Englishness that is explored that resides in the sound of bands from The Kinks
to XTC, and maybe even takes in a bit of the brit-pop era with some Cocker
styled social commentary.
That’s Jarvis and not Joe by the
way.
Of course there is s till the
sound of The Boys that can be heard on C’est la vie, End of the World and One
night in Rio, and fans from that period of his career are certainly not being
left behind, but it’s fair to say that the train has left the station and a
tipping point has been reached with the lions share of the compositions living
and breathing in the here and now rather than celebrating something that has
been and gone.
It’s a brave move really, and one
that should be celebrated.
The option was there to go with
the familiar or cast caution to the wind and create something new.
I’m glad that Duncan with his Big Heads chose the latter.
It bodes very well for the future.
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