Bill Pritchard - Midland Lullabies

by Dixie Ernill

published: 14 / 5 / 2019

Label: Tapete Records
Format: CD

Hamburg’s Tapete Records continues to champion the underdog, as Bill Pritchard returns with an excellent new album

Review

Back in the 1980s when the Smiths imploded, Bill Pritchard was being hailed in some quarters as a possible mast for angst-ridden students to pin their flags to whilst mourning the passing of arguably the greatest guitar band this country has ever created. In 1989’s ‘Three Months, Three Weeks & Two Days’, Pritchard served up an album that should have ticked all the necessary boxes, but as is the case so often it failed to receive the support it deserved and dripped away into the underground classics bin. Only those prepared to dig a little deeper found the riches within. After his ‘Jolie’ album in 1991, Pritchard’s releases became very sporadic with only two more albums coming out before he slipped from view entirely in 2004. Suddenly, he resurfaced ten years later with his first album for Tapete, the wonderful ‘A Trip to the Coast’, which was closely followed by ‘Mother Town Hall’ in 2016. Fast forward to 2019 and ‘Midland Lullabies’ has dropped. It is unmistakeably a Bill Pritchard album, and a bloody good one at that, but there’s a twist as piano becomes the main instrument rather than guitar. Many of the songs are softer and seem to lend themselves nicely to the piano, in particular ‘Thanks’, ‘Lanterns’ and ‘Grow’, but too much of the same thing can grate a little, so the inclusion of a trio of guitar numbers is certainly welcome. Of the guitar tracks, ‘Tuesday Morning’ is the highlight with a dark twang that eases into a gentle strum, but ‘Forever’ and the wonderfully titled ‘The Last Temptation of Brussels’ (which thankfully isn’t an ode to the Xmas dinner vegetable of choice) aren’t far behind. All three hint at Pritchard’s late 80’s heyday, prior to his recent renaissance and are the kind of tracks that Morrissey would sell his cat to be able to claim as his own.

Track Listing:-

1 Iolanda
2 Lullaby
3 The Last Temptation of Brussels
4 Thanks
5 Tricksey
6 Lanterns
7 Piano Sunstrokes (Interlude)
8 Garibaldi
9 Grow
10 Tuesday Morning
11 Mother Town
12 Forever
13 Piano Sunstrokes (Outro)