Whimsical and self-effacing reflections with a poetic folk-rock flavour.
With an alter-ego like Vinny Peculiar, there’s a fair chance that this is someone unlikely to take himself too seriously. Underneath the self-deprecating and sardonic wit, however, is an artist from the West Midlands who ploughs the same furrow of archetypally British songwriting as can be found on the Small Faces’ ‘Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake’ or ‘The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society’.
The ten songs on ‘Things Too Long Left Unsaid’ were written between 2011 and 2021 and now find their outlet on Vinny Peculiar’s fifteenth album. Each of them has been reworked with the help of regular producer Dave Draper, the result being a musical and lyrical delight.
It’s refreshing to find someone so open and unpretentious as Alan Wilkes, aka Vinny, whose pride takes many a fall in songs that are insightful and funny, wistful and wise. ‘Shenstone College Disco’ is comic genius. Based on an amorous encounter in a Bromsgrove college during the early 1970s, there’s an American girl, a hungry cat and a surprising twist at the end, all set to some retro-sounding guitar riffs like The Faces in their prime.
‘All I Want for Christmas is a Gibson Flying V’ is another that draws upon the artist’s earlier life, describing a job in a Birmingham music store at a time when Slade ruled the charts, and Jasper Carrot was on TV. With the same humorous reflection found in the diary of that other boy from the Midlands, Adrian Mole, he decides there’s little point in anything except owning the model of Gibson guitar to be seen in the hands of his heroes, who he reels off with the same reverence that Todd Snider shows towards his collection of ‘Vinyl Records’.
In similar style, he references a dozen of the greats in ‘Songwriters of the World’, an ironic reflection on the writer’s difficulty in finding anything new to say. There’s typically mordant humour as he dreams of one day joining their ranks:
“I’m the second greatest songwriter this world will ever know”.
‘Fluffy Kitten’ pokes fun at social media, and ‘Love at the Garden Centre’ is more light satire, but in among these comic gems, there are bitter-sweet interludes in ‘The End’ and ‘The Man Who Loved You’, songs that show emotional depth to counterpoint the wry observation.
Vinny Peculiar plays nearly all the instruments on the album, with some assistance on bass from producer Draper. There are backing vocals by Leah Wilkes on ‘Shenstone College Disco’ and ‘Fluffy Kitten’, and See Walsh takes the choir boy vocal on ‘All I Want for Christmas is a Gibson Flying V’. If these songs were not deemed worthy of inclusion on earlier Vinny Peculiar releases, then a closer look at his extensive back catalogue promises to be a rewarding experience.
