Impassioned energy and emotionally charged politics from Merseyside luminary.
Ian Prowse has been making music for more than thirty years, first with indie band Pele, then forming the band Amsterdam in 1999, and now releasing albums under his own name. Having recently been inducted into the Liverpool Legends Hall of Fame, No Names, his latest release, finds him involving other similarly engaged souls such as Elvis Costello, Steve Wickham, and Damien Dempsey.
The first thing to note is the music is for the most part fantastic. Acoustic guitars jangle forcefully, Prowse’s vocals are impassioned, and there is frequently a joyous uplift to the melodies that call for audience participation. The arrangements are full of energy, but also nuance and subtlety.
Kicking off with a slow arpeggio, opener To The Letter soon takes flight into a punch-the-air anthem. This is quickly followed by the handclaps and sing-along chorus of Keynote Speech, and the gently rolling, nostalgic, Ronnie Lane-like Rendezvous Point (which features supremely confident vocals from his 14-year-old daughter Rosalita).
By the time The Cleaner appears, the horn section and Costello-infused energy combine to create another anthemic offering. As gospel-style backing vocals croon “rise on up”, a multi-layered lyric describes the lot of those at the bottom of the economic pile struggling to get by, even as their efforts enable other more ‘important’ people to get on with their business of making money and power. He is similarly engaging on the title track, which has the feel of a Merseyside classic, recalling the mid-90s heyday of Cast or The La’s.
These are typical of the album as a whole, combining the very personal with the very political. The Smiths once complained that there were “too many protest singers, not enough protest songs”, and Prowse goes a long way to putting this right. For most of the album, the tub-thumping is kept sufficiently in check to get his message across without relinquishing the necessity of carrying the audience with him, via music which is either catchy or moving, and frequently both.
This is a fine album full of fine songs. The passion with which Prowse delivers them is reflective of a career spent powering sweaty live gigs. The ‘Scouse Springsteen’ has delivered what may well be a career highlight.
