There’s no shortage of singer songwriters about Glasgow and my opinion of these sensitive souls is generally and justifiably low. Then along comes Andy Young to strike a for the most part convincing blow against this scourge of the local music scene.
Admittedly, on my first listen it was hard to take “Love Each Other “seriously. If you listened all the way through then you would have been – like me – stunned by the clumsy, thesaurus free rhyming couplets, the awkward stylistic changes, the obsession with girls (I lost count after Dawn, Susan and Caroline) and the rhythmic fascism of the cheap and nasty drum machine. Then a metaphorical light bulb appeared above my head.
This album is the revenge of a disgruntled pub singer who knows that the days of rock songs and making living from them are gone and that the future of music has been squandered on weedy youths who can’t even handle watery lager. In that context, the humour to be found in this album becomes rather more obvious. For example, the Marbella madness portrayed in “C-Moon and Star” then makes perfect sense. Likewise, the subtle violin inflections contributed by Anne Morgan to “Movin’ On” perfectly complements the parodist Celtic rock intentions of that song.
I’ve got to say that this album made me smile more than a few times. One day when my cynicism finally overcomes me and I start down the roads to retribution, I’ll be able to use this album as part of my defence at trial. One more thing – if this album gets reissued some day, I hope they have the common sense to commission some better cover art.
Available worldwide from CD Baby.