Album Review: Simon Love - "Love, Sex & Death Etc"
Something of a new name to this writer, this is actually the third album from Welsh indie veteran Simon Love. And I have to be honest, my reaction upon listening to it is "why on earth haven't I heard of this guy before?"
The best description I can think of for Love, Sex & Death Etc is if you imagine Pulp if they'd received some songwriting lessons from Billy Bragg and a few lessons on how to do orchestration from Burt Bacharach. Yep, seriously, that good. Although it gets off to a bouncy Britpoppy opener with the ode to his wife Me And You, it doesn't take long for a spitefulness to come to the surface. I Will Dance is a great song with its ode to revenge on the bastards currently running this country into the ground and its chorus of "When you fall I will laugh/And when you die I will dance". The Fuck-Up expands on the theme even further with a middle eight including Love's father reading Nye Bevan's speech about the Tories being lower than vermin and the countrified You're On Your Own sounds like '60s Dylan possessed by Ed Borrie. Powerful stuff.
It's not just the lyrics though - songs like North Road which go from a joyful northern soul style stomp to a blissed out psychedelic outro show that Love and his band the Old Romantics are a bunch of incredibly versatile musicians and it's all too rare that you get a band who can marry that sort of dextrousness with a knack for an incisive and thoughtful lyric as well. Elsewhere, the gentle break-up bitterness of Yvonne and the Gram Parsons style country of I Will Always Love You Anyway and the touching Au Revoir My Dude show that they can do heartbreak just as well as political anger. On the other hand, L-O-T-H-A-R-I-O is an early Frank Turner style warts and all look at one night stands gone wrong which will raise a smile from all but the most humourless as is the poppy revenge fantasy I Love Everyone In The World (Except You).
If you need an example of Love's skill at full flow, listen to Worst Way To Die which mixes dark humour, heartbreak and a surprising amount of pathos to create something genuinely special and kind of sums up this album perfectly. Like I said at the beginning, I've no idea how I've managed to miss Simon Love's music in my life until now but I fully intend to change that going forward. And I'd suggest you do the same too, starting with this one.
NITE SONGS RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 (9/10)
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