Artist: Ian Dury Album: Reasons To Be Cheerful The Best Of Ian Dury Released: 2005 Label. Mufty77 28 May 2017 17:12. Reasons to Be Cheerful: The Very Best of Ian Dury & The Blockheads ~ Release by Ian Dury & The Blockheads (see all versions of this release, 1 available). Description What makes genius is the combination of inventing a style and being the best at it. Picasso did it in painting, TSEliot did it in poetry, Rennie-Mackintosh did it in interior design. And Ian Dury & the Blockheads, God bless their dirty white socks, did it too. Music Hall funk. What a non-sequitur - it's like 'military intelligence' or 'dainty biker'. But it works.This is the smoothest, dirtiest, most corrupted pick-up band you will ever hear - complemented by Dury's Dickensian observation of the extraordinary ordinary. From the faux-naif laddism of 'Billericay Dickie' to the outraged sympathy of 'Itinerant Child', this is affection for the English at its most telling. Not patriotic, nor patronising - but affectionate and critical, as you might mock your sister's haircut, loving her but wincing at the flickbacks.It's not without its weak tracks. I'd say there were three that I would have replaced with something I love more (Where's 'Geraldine'?). But that's the nature of 'Best Ofs'. I don't suppose that even the compiler was completely happy.This is not an album that will open up to you whole new vistas of musical terrain, as might 'What's Goin' On', or 'Led Zep III'. It's a unique document that represents nothing other than the unique talent of a superb white funk band fronted by an irreplaceable vocal and lyrical talent.Further reading? The Stiff back catalogue. Not that there's anything like this on it. But there's a whole raft of stuff that, like this, is nothing like anything at all.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
March 2019
Categories |