Vinny Peculiar - Things Too Long Left Unsaid

by John Clarkson

published: 17 / 8 / 2025

Vinny Peculiar - Things Too Long Left Unsaid

Label: Arthoused
Format: CD

intro

Poignant but funny sixteenth album from Worcester-based cult musician Vinny Peculiar

Cult artist and former mental health nurse Vinny Peculiar (aka Alan Wilkes) has just released his sixteenth album, ‘Things Too Left Unsaid’. Since he released his masterpiece ‘Silver Meadows’ in 2015, which told of the lives of a group of patients and staff in a mental institution, most of Peculiar’s albums, which are largely character-based, have been themed. ‘Return of The Native’ (2018) was influenced by his return to his native Worcester after many years living and working in Liverpool and Manchester. ‘While You Still Can’ (2019) was about the total folly of Brexit, ‘Artists Only’ (2022) about modern art and ‘How I Loved The Freaks’ (2023) about 60’s and 70’s pop music and the subcultures that developed alongside them. The ten-song ‘Things Too Long Left Unsaid’ consists of songs written between 2011 and 2021, and tracks written for but ultimately dropped from some of those albums, and their two predecessors, ‘Other People Like Me’ (2011) and Down the Bright Stream’ (2015). They have been remade and reimagined with the aid of Peculiar’s regular co-producer Dave Draper, who also helps out with additional guitar. Peculiar’s daughter Leah and grandson Seb also provide occasional backing vocals, and Peculiar himself plays guitar and keyboards as well as sings. One might expect with such a potential rag bag of a collection that these songs, which did not make the albums, might be hit or miss, but Peculiar as always provides a very high quality of craftmanship as well as his trademark sense of offbeat humour throughout. He takes an existential approach to life, accepting that people can be very strange, but while Jean-Paul Sartre proclaimed that “hell is other people”, it shines through that the more empathetic Peculiar for all their insecurities, occasional egotisms and self-delusions really rather likes his fellow human beings. The elegiac opening track ‘The End’ tells of two musicians whose failing band has come to the end of the road(“This is the end/We need to call it a day my friend”). By the close of the song, rather like Del and Rodney in ‘Only Fools and Horses’ in their quest to be millionaires, this pair of ne’er-do-wells, however, are already optimistically planning their comeback (“We’re coming back again like we never went away/And next time we’ll get it right/And we’ll hit the big time on a Saturday night”). ‘Shenstone College Disco’ is played out against the background of haemorrhaging 70’s rock guitars and tells of a naïve youth who a night out meets a girl from San Francisco and drunkenly goes to bed with her, only to find out later that she is not what she gas said she is (“As we stumble on to the dance floor to Three Times a Lady by the Commodores/The disco ends there’s muted applause lights come on as we head for the doors…”). ‘Love in the Garden Centre’ and ‘Fine Art’ both also tell of unusual romances. The tenderformer track is about two introverts who gradually fall for each other over their love of plants while working in their local garden centre (And then they share a kiss behind the garden wall/And they look into the sunset/Thomas Hardy would approve?And their fingernails are muddy as they walk back to the car”). The brazen ‘Fine Art’ with its swaggering guitars and popping keyboards in contrast tells of the unlikely love affair between an art school student and a musician who is temporarily working on a building site while waiting for his band to take off. She leaves him, but also behind for him a strange present (“She drew a picture of the queen/Naked in bath for all to see/It’s hanging on my wall/It remains a talking point/When my friends come over to call”). Another highlight is ‘SentimentaL Music’ about a girl who is absolutely unashamed in her love of what many other consider naff, and the boy next door who secretly carries a torch for her (“She doesn't care for noisy rock bands or for men with poodle hair/Scuzzy punks or metal goths in black who always stop and stare”). Hymnal recent single ‘All I Want For Christmas is a Ginson Flying X’ , with its swooping backing vocals from Leah and Seb, reflects on what was on top of every 70’ s would-be teenage guitarist’s most wanted list for Christmas. (“Nor a holiday in Brixham with my stupid family/Nor a college education what’s the point in a degree/All I want for Christmas/All I want for Christmas/All I want for Christmas is a Gibson Flying V”). The final track, the softly psychedelic and hazy ‘Fluffy Kitten’ reflects on its protagonist’s growing and disturbing obsession with getting hits and likes on social media (I“lI have a fluffy kitten photo with a thousand of likes/Posted on the internet it’s up on Facebook and it looks so nice/I’m not a dedicated user of their dubious platform/Nor a keyboard warrior but the picture is going down a storm”), Odds and sods collections rarely promise much, but this another excellent album from Vinny Peculiar, who has reworked its material as a regular album, which is as poignant as it is funny, and as erudite as it is thought-provoking

Track Listing:-

1 The End
2 Shenstone College Disco
3 Sentimental Music
4 Love at the Garden Centre
5 All I want for Christmas is a Gibson Flying V
6 Fine Art
7 Songwriters of the World
8 Galm Rock Graveyard
9 The Man Who Loved You
10 Fluffy Kitten

Band Links:-

http://vinnypeculiar.com
https://www.facebook.com/vinnypeculiarmusic
https://twitter.com/vinnypeculiar
https://soundcloud.com/vinnypeculiar
https://www.youtube.com/user/arthurcrabtree

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Visitor Comments:-

17287 Posted By: Andrew Whalley, Northwich Cheshire on 12 Jul 2025

Another album of great pop singles - dropped from previous albums for whatever reason - they still stand as ten stories with a start middle and end all told within a few minutes - pretty perfect.

interviews

Interview (2022)

Singer-songwriter Vinny Peculiar talks to John Clarkson about his 'three quarters' modern art-themed latest album, 'Artists Only'.

Interview (2020)

Interview (2019)

Interview (2016)

Interview (2015)

Interview (2014)

Interview (2007)

features

The Image That Made Me Weep (2020)

Vinny Peculiar - The Image That Made Me Weep

In our new series 'The Image That Made Me Weep', we are inviting a different guest with each edition to write of a music image that has had an impact on them. Singer-songwriter Vinny Peculiar writes about a photograph of his uncle Jim Wilkes, who was a trad jazz musician.

Broadcast, Glasgow, 22/9/2016 and Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, 23/9/2016 (2016)

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reviews

How I Learned to Love the Freaks (2023)

Literate and thought-provoking concept album about hippy culture from Vinny Peculiar, who remains one of our most individual and unique musical talents

While You Still Can (2019)

Return of the Native (2018)

Silver Meadows (2016)

Down the Bright Stream (2015)

The Root Mull Affect (2014)

Other People Like Me (2011)

Sometimes I Feel Like a King (2009)

Goodbye My Angry Friend (2007)

The Fall and Rise of Vinny Peculiar (2007)

Whatever Happened To Vinny Peculiar ? (2005)