Rich(ard) Dawson wanders through northern life, like a folk soap opera.
Rich(ard) Dawson (the second syllable in his first name is expressed in parenthesis for this release, suggesting that he wants to be known as Rich, going forward; indeed this is reinforced by the album cover having the “ard” of his name crossed out and featuring the text “Just Rich“). Dawson hails from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and sings with a strong north east England accent. The Guardian has previously dubbed Dawson “Britain’s best songwriter“; high praise indeed.
“End of the Middle” is Dawson’s eighth studio record, in a solo recording career stretching almost two decades, back to 2007’s “Richard Dawson Sings Songs and Plays Guitar“; until this latest release, his most recent album was “The Ruby Cord“, released in 2022. Never one to shy away from trying something unconventional, Dawson experimented with a 41-minute opening track (‘The Hermit‘) on “The Ruby Cord“; he also collaborated with Finnish experimental rock band Circle for their 2021 LP “Henki“.
For “End of the Middle“, Dawson instructed the musicians to play softly, with a view to allowing the melodies and lyrics to shine through. As Dawson puts it, “I wanted this album to be small-scale and very domestic,” he explains. “To be stripped back, reconnect with the basics and let everything speak for itself – to be really stark and naked by just putting the words and melodies out there.”
In addition to Dawson’s voice and guitar and the drums of Andrew Cheetham, there are also keyboards and clarinet, Dawson also contributes saxophone. The clarinet and saxophone give some of the songs an ethereal feel, with the playing being jazz-influenced.
The subject matter for the songs is basically an exploration of “a typical middle class English family home”; Dawson suggests that these are stories of people from three or four generations of perhaps the same family. So maybe an apt description of this would be a soap opera, or perhaps a kitchen sink drama; the lives depicted seem humdrum. Certainly the lyrics display a down to earth quality, with no airs, graces or glorification apparent and a refreshing honesty to the descriptions and storytelling. The songs are very heavily folk-tinged and the lyrics read more like long poems than songs; poetry set to music, if you will. This, and Dawson’s vocal delivery bring to mind the work of Jake Thackray.
The record opens with ‘Bolt‘, a song about a house being struck by a bolt of lightning; the lyrics depict the scene, “I’m in the hall on the phone, Jen’s in her room watching Neighbours, Dad’s in the bath whistling, Mam’s on the sofa reading yesterday’s paper. When suddenly the house is lit to every corner by a stupendous burst of all-seeing light“. ‘Gondola‘ follows and the lyrics convey a mundane scene; there are numerous references to (mostly daytime) TV shows; “Good Morning Britain, a soft-boiled egg. Piers is on Lorraine, shooting pains down my left leg. Holly & Phil’ll pay my energy bills” while later Dawson describes “Hailstones on the bus up to Lidl.” There’s regret in here, too with suggestions of life passing by “I don’t want any more regrets, my dreams died like dolphins in a net. I never got to go to Venice and how many summers have I left?”
‘Boxing Day sales‘ tells the tale of friends meeting by chance while shopping the Boxing Day sales in inclement weather; they catch up over a cuppa in a café, discussing pleasantries, before moving on to items in the sales, such as espresso machines and noise cancelling headphones, with the comment “You can’t afford to not own this. Go on, you owe it to yourself.” A jazz-like sax solo gives this song a different sound. While ‘Knot‘ is one of a number of quite lengthy songs on the record (though we’re talking seven and a half minutes, rather than 41); it’s about a Wedding. It describes small talk over a buffet and an amusing line “The best man’s speech is pretty much a bleak, ham-fisted Powerpoint-presentation on the groom’s former life of depravity and degradation.”
‘Polytunnel‘ is about growing vegetables on an allotment (Dawson admits that the lyrics for the LP were written in a shed on his allotment). The song ‘Removals van‘ is a highlight; it’s a reflective song looking back to childhood days, “Staying up late to watch the England Germany semi-final; The long summers my brother and me passed fishing in the quarry and climbing trees; Great cities of LEGO sprawled across the darkened plain of the garage floor.”
Album closer ‘More than Real‘ features a duet between Dawson and his partner, Sally Pilkington (who co-wrote the song). It features a drawn-out instrumental ending, featuring clarinet and saxophone.
Somewhat interestingly, there is a vinyl version of the album which is a reverse cut, playing from the middle outwards, the opposite direction to a standard LP. Fingers crossed that this has a locked outer groove to keep the tonearm from sliding off the side of the disc, otherwise playing the record could potentially have an expensive conclusion. Another record with a similar idiosyncrasy is Jack White’s “Lazaretto”.
If you enjoy folk music with a down to earth feel to it, then you may like this record, but if your tastes lie elsewhere, it’s unlikely that you’ll be converted by what’s on offer here.
