Due for release at the start of September, DANIEL RACHEL returns with sophomore album A Taste of Money (Dust) in heel clicking joyful pop mood with a mix of bittersweet acoustic folksy ballads, lazy bluesy roots shuffles, big music belters (with brass) and rock n roll.
It's hard not to notice the influence of Bringing It All On Home era Dylan with rowdy anti-war protest rock n roller The Bucket and Broom Song (which features a duet with Willis) while, produced by and featuring vocals by Simon Fowler and recorded with the original Rachel's Basement line-up, Face The Sun is an unashamed nod to the Bee Gees. Pity though its lovely waltzing folkpop song is marred by an unnecessary thin blues guitar solo.
Still, that and the remixed Driving 'Round the Bend's baggy trousers rock n roller that sounds like a Chas n Dave knees up with Elton John's Crocodile Rock at a Madness revival night, aside, there are few missteps here.
Opening with here, Hotel Room, lyrically inspired by Edward Hopper's paintings and owing perhaps a little to Long Black Veil, Rachel's quivering warble is in fine form, wistful and vulnerable on the soaring anthemic chorus single Let It Be Mine, relaxed in the smoky jazz vibes with Tivoli Flicks, an affectionate nostalgic memoir of Birmingham's old art house cum porn cinema, now The Electric.
Two
former singles, the vintage McCartney-like Dear Friend and the Northern
Soul meets folk pop beat with horns of Pearl are included (though b-side
An Englishman Abroad could profitably have been omitted) while among the
previously unreleased material you'll find 20,000 Fools, one of his earliest
songs, inspired by Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude, melancholic
things we leave behind strings and piano ballad Shadows and Dust (surely
influenced by Tim Buckley) and the simple acoustic strummed Ode To The
Fallen Heroes. Arguably though, the standout though is Hearts and Bones,
a nonsense lyric jaunty accordion squeezing good time folk number designed
for cider swigging sessions, produced by John McCusker and featuring not
only him but the entire Kate Rusby band.
MIKE
DAVIES
THE BEAT
