DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy
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Album reviews with IAN SINCLAIR: July 3, 2023
New releases from Bonny Doon, Speech Debelle and Jacob Young
STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
The bard invites readers to a gig, raps for Clacton, and lays out the Burnham-Hurzeler conundrum
RON JACOBS recommends an important book that enhances the oppositional theories put forth by Fanon and, in doing so, remakes psychology itself
Bonny Doon
Let There Be Music
(Anti-)
★★★★
WHAT a pleasure this album is – the third from US band Bonny Doon.
Fans of sad white boy songwriters from across the pond like David Berman, Joe Pernice and Frontier Ruckus’s Matthew Milia will immediately feel at home with the warm melancholy created by Bobby Colombo (vocals, guitar), Bill Lennox (vocals, guitar) and Jake Kmiecik (drums).
Like the aforementioned artists, the Detroit-born three-piece trade in a poppy Americana, from the super catchy bar room piano on yearning opener San Francisco to the unlikely positivity of the title track. The tired-sounding You Can’t Stay The Same could be a track on The Jayhawks’ 1992 altcountry classic Hollywood Town Hall.
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