John Parkes - Illegal Songs

  by Russell Ferguson

published: 30 / 1 / 2008

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Review

I have often wondered why anyone would want to be a folk singer. It seems to be one of the toughest music scenes to break into and if you do the rewards are small compared to other areas of music. Surely being in an indie band is a much easier way to sneak your way into the music press, get reviews, collect a small army of fans who blindly believe what they read in the music papers, as you just generally fake it with a lot of bullshit remarks and second rate songs. Look at Razorlight and the Kooks and tell me that I’m wrong. Leeds-based singer-songwriter John Parkes has released his second album ‘Illegal Songs’, a collection of folk songs upon which he sings who sings about love, longing, lust, religion, politics, self examination and other general angst while throwing in several touches of black humour. John is no newcomer to the music scene. As well as currently fronting local group Whole Sky Monitor, he has played in bands like the Fuzzbirds, Greenhouse and the Chords. He has also worked with the Wedding Present and the Ukrainians as well as helping out Buffalo Tom for a few weeks and his career spans nearly two decades. John Peel played something from every record John made over a period of 14 years, which is some going for just one guy who describes himself as "A Bob Dylan in reverse." Listening to these songs you get the sense that John means every word he is singing about. From the first strum of the guitar to the last note, I am glad to say it does not disappoint. I am not a great fan of folk songs. As a kid I remember listening to rebel songs and I remember how inspired I was by them and that has always stuck with me. Consequently a lot of modern folk singers just seem to be a little flat. John has done well with these songs. They certainly don’t sound flat and the whole album never gets stale or boring, which is not that easy considering it features throoughout just John's guitar and voice. On his website www.johnparkes.com, John writes about all his songs and says about one of the tracks on the album, 'The Glorification of Terrorism', that "There's a raft of new laws about, The one banning 'Glorification of Terrorism' is surely the daftest and most arbitrary as well as the most dangerous. If you can't glorify terrorists you can't praise Nelson Mandela, the French Resistance, the founders of the USA or whoever." He has a point. About ‘Incitement to Religious Hatred’ he states "Another ridiculous law ! Why does anyone who subscribes to some irrational medieval belief system get special treatment ?" I have always been a sucker for anyone who sings about the faults and weaknesses of society and, while the style of music isn’t my first choice, you have to admire his lyrics and his perception on life. It’s by no means all seriousness. ‘The Dog Ate My Songs’ is a light hearted look at unfinished songs, while ‘Next To You’ is about that moment when you've had a drink and you realize that you fancy the person you are sitting next to. We have all been there, haven’t we ? ‘Let's Make Love’ has the line "Said she was the girl of my dreams,/So she asked me for a sample of my DNA/I introduced her to my legal team." As I said, we have all been there or at least it’s crossed our minds at some point in our lives. That is one of the strengths of this record. You can associate yourself with what he is singing. You can see yourself in these songs. This is a fine album and surely one of the best folk albums I have heard in years. It is full of life. It has a variety of tempos that never make it a chore to listen to. It moves easily and has a fluidity about it all. John is in the same vein as Billy Bragg and we need more singers like that. Be it in the pop, rock, indie or folk genres, we need an antidote to the plastic manufactured bands that are currently plaguing the charts with their tales of undying love sung in a totally clichéd way or worse still doing covers that are nowhere as good as the original. It’s just a shame John isn’t going to get a great deal of notice as too many people are fixated writing about bands that can’t deliver. Razorlight, you have more to answer for than you’ll ever know.

Track Listing:-

1 Second Golden Age Of Protest
2 Glorification Of Terrorism
3 Let's Make Love
4 Incitement To Religious Hatred
5 Pray For Recession
6 Valentine's Day
7 My Desire
8 The Dog Ate My Song
9 Left Of Centre
10 Economics
11 Stalker Boy
12 Running Down The Clock
13 You Win
14 Next To You

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/johnparkesaco
http://johnparkes.blogspot.co.uk/
https://johnparkes.bandcamp.com/