No album with a track entitled It’s All Maggie Thatcher’s Fault can be all bad. However, anyone expecting a raging, politically-motivated set of songs will be heartily disappointed.
London singer-songwriter Nick Haeffner was guitarist in the post-punk band ‘The Tea Set’ until they broke up in 1982. After one solo album - The Great Indoors - in 1987 he took an extended break from music, and worked as a teacher at a London art college.
After this hiatus he self-released A New Life Awaits You in 2019 and an instrumental record - The Electromagnetic Imaginary – three years later.
His fourth album is described as ”quintessential British folk-pop” which means thar it is understated and ever so slightly eccentric. There’s a dreamy, easy-listening quality to the songs but a sense of lingering melancholy too.
The title track is extravagantly described as "Eleanor Rigby meets Sly and Robbie" and tells the story of a young immigrant dealing with the challenges of boredom and loneliness.
There’s a muted take on the Rogers/Hart standard My Funny Valentine and The Cat’s Pyjamas sounds like it has ambitions of being a show tune. This was co-written with Clive PiG, who also sings on the track.
Getrude Veremu contributes overly intrusive vocals on two songs - Back In the Life and The Years Lie in Wait for You . Both these tunes feature Arjuna Satchitananathan on trombone and the second has Pierre Lassegues speaking French. They have such a different feel that seem to belong to another record.
The recird closes with a short instrumental version of Holst’s Cranham (In the Bleak Midwinter) . a quiet, almost apologetic end to an album which has a dark, trippy undercurrent but is too restrained to make a lasting impression.
