Apparently this is PANDO'S fourth solo album since leaving the Spanish rock band Kerkhoff and the first one recorded in London since he has returned to his native city. Now I happened to have missed the previous albums so I don't have much insight on whether 'Deathbed Pando' is an improvement or not.
What I can say, however, is that it's a very quirky album that opens like the start of a bad fantasy Horror film and then just gets odder with a weird rap called Up Sticks about the CURRENT socio-economic situation that just had me scratching my head a bit.
That's followed by a real odd send up, Lover, which is very funny but also way off. For much of the album, Pando sounds like he wants to be a cross between Blowfly and George Clinton circa Maggot Brain which is no bad thing, except he only manages to pull it off occasionally. The Suckies is probably as close as he gets to getting that shtick right, but it's followed by Off Me Tits, which is...well just wrong on many levels both lyrically and musically.
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But the song that could well bring notoriety to this LP is the closer With Dennis that I first heard two days before Margaret Thatcher died and seems at first listen to be a paean to Maggie T played and sung as a lament to her dear departed husband. It opens with the now prescient lyrics "So Long Maggie the last great prime minister." It took me a few more listens to make certain that he is being more than a touch sarcastic in his delivery, but it could easily be taken either way dependent on your viewpoint.
It makes for disturbing listening regardless, but seeing as the charts are currently being flooded with songs both for and against Maggie it would seem there has never been a better time to be singing about her since the mid-80's.
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