Album Review: Miles Hunt - "Things Can Change"

 

Interesting fact - the Wonder Stuff were the last band your correspondent saw live (at Shepherds Bush Empire just before Christmas 2019) before lockdown knocked the UK gig scene on its arse for two years. With live music shutting down through 2020 and most of 2021, Miles Hunt's livestream gigs were another thing along with Tim from the Charlatans' Listening Party sessions that helped your correspondent to just about keep his sanity during those dark times and also allowed Milo to roadtest a number of new songs. Things Can Change therefore, is a bit of a kind of lockdown diary album from the guy featuring a mix of solo songs and a couple which were intended for a Vent 414 reunion which never quite came to pass.

As with a lot of Milo's stuff, there's a nice wistful reflective feel to a lot of these songs - while I Used To Want It All deals with being forced to spend a lot of time re-assessing your life with the onset of the pandemic, And She Gives is a genuinely lovely uplifting ode to new love which well and truly soars. Even the breakup song In My Sights is less about moping around feeling sorry for yourself and more about picking yourself up afterwards and realising that there's always tomorrow.

Hunt has assembled an impressive guestlist for this album as well with his Vent bandmates Billy Duffy and Morgan Nicholls both helping out on a few numbers (certainly the heavy but upbeat We Can All Do Better with its pummelling Stranglers-esque bassline from Nicholls, which was originally set for a Vent reunion, offers a tantalising glimpse of what could still happen there if circumstances allow, likewise the slow-building closer Que Viva La Soledad which has a similar Vent-style feel to it) and Penfriend adding some haunting backing vocals to Things Can Change and A Picture Of A Stranger.

Although there's definitely a few more dark and reflective moments on here like This Descent and Lucid Is As Lucid Does, the overall feel of Things Can Change is a surprisingly uplifting album which feels like the aural equivalent of Milo putting his arm round the listener's shoulder and telling them that despite all the hardship of the last few years, things are gonna be okay and there's always something worthwhile to aim for in the future with some great tunes and musicianship to boot. A proper feelgood album and I'd go so far as to say genuinely one of the best that I've heard this year.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 (9/10)