Album Review: Paul-Ronney Angel - “London Texas Lockdown”


Erstwhile frontman of the Urban Voodoo Machine, Paul-Ronney Angel has been a busy man during lockdown. Normally a man who seems to tour every moment he's given, he's used the frustration of being stuck indoors (combined with doing a weekly online show which has often given me some much needed entertainment to stave off the cabin fever when I've badly needed it over the winter) to put together a new solo album with the possibility of getting the nine-man Voodoos together in recent months being pretty much a no-go.

The Tom Waits-esque scuzzed up country of 2020 (You Been A Pain In The Ass) which opens things here, sees Angel writing his manifesto large with a withering tirade against the hellishness of lockdown and Covid. In fact the overall theme here seems to be trying to make the best of a bad situation with the enjoyably sloppy ragtime booze anthem Wild Turkey and Lemonade (which like 2020 features the powerful vocals of Linda Gail Lewis) seeing Angel looking for an escape. Elsewhere though former single One Ghost Town (written in the run-up to the first lockdown as a howl of anger at the government's mishandling of the crisis' early days...oh how little did we all know...) and the self-explanatory Oh Pandemic (a duet between Angel and Tomirae Brown, widow of James) seeing Angel howling out his aggravation at the last 12 months.

There's a bit of variety here though as Angel turns his talents to giving the Ramones' I Wanna Be Sedated an acoustic reworking as well as covering the old gospel standard Will The Circle Be Unbroken (with assistance from Rat Scabies, Jim Jones and the Future Shape of Sound's Alex McGowan among others) and covering his old Voodoos bandmate Nick Marsh's Last Train To Anywhere aided by Marsh's daughter Rosa, a good tribute for the fifth anniversary of the man's passing.

Overall, despite the desolate lyrical content of a lot of this album, London Texas Lockdown proves to be a strangely uplifting album, almost as if Angel is looking back at a dark period in his life (and indeed all of our lives) and celebrating making through it in one piece. Sometimes you need to look back at the darkest times to appreciate the lighter ones and I suspect that this is the role this album will play for a lot of those who listen to it in years ahead.


NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

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