Last weekend I reviewed one of the pair of new Beans On Toast albums. The one I did first was “old school” Beans, as it were. Acoustic, singer/songwriter, clever about the world around us, about right now.
This one – produced by Frank Turner – is more akin to the fleshed out sound that was in evidence on last year’s superb “The Inevitable Train Wreck”. Particularly interesting in the context of what these songs are. Because if “The Unforseeable Future” was about now, then the one that sounds “new” , if you will, is broadly about “then”.
It begins with a good representation of that. The funky and fun “The Village Disco”, and its first line is telling. “Someone gotta be the first one on the dancefloor” sings Beans, and in many ways, that’s him still. You see his gigs and they are an amazing party (and I speak as someone who avoids them) where you can’t resist being involved, you can’t not be involved, frankly, and that that, really has always been in Beans, even before he was Beans and just plain old Jay at the village hall in Notley with his mum and dad.
This is probably his most diverse work too. “What Would Willie Do?” is genuinely warm, trad country, a homage to Willie Nelson, or more accurately how we should all be a bit more like him. That all being said though, its the warmth with which Beans writes that gets you. “My Favourite Teacher” is a lovely tribute to those that care.
“No Need To Be Frightened” is a good example of the chances that are being taken here, it seems to have found something from Laurel Canyon, and if “Your Old Mate Beano” sounds just a touch throwaway at first, then get yourself to the last line and you’ll get the point, plus of course, there’s BoT’s genuine wonderment that his music has taken him all over the world.
Buried in the next three are absolute genius, and proof that this – with the greatest respect in the world to Billy Bragg and Frank Turner who I love – is the most original writer we have on these shores. “The Family Tree” (“we are all slaves to the stories we tell”) sounds like it was done on my old Casio keyboard so 80s does it sound. Then there’s the beautiful “Album Of The Day”, surely 2020’s sweetest song, which deals with Beans teaching his daughter all the classics. I don’t have kids, but you’d best believe I was swelling with pride the other week when I got a text from my brother to tell me that my toddler niece asked him for “Daddy music” and made him play The Wildhearts.
The best one, however is the simply incredible “Once Upon A Time”, about his early life in Camden, but also the decline of the area itself. A wonderful song, the accordion gives it a real folk feel and the way he paints the pictures over the seven and a half minutes, it is one of the finest songs of his career.
And the last one, “Coincidence?” has the feel of a gospel tune, “Whole World In His Hands”, kept coming into my head – although his description of birds as “they keep it simple, they don’t fuck about” wasn’t in many hymns at my school. The horns though, the uplifting chorus. It’s in there, there’s the promise of a better day, and that’s sort of the point of this album it seems to me. It will get better, it really will.
Of course, you could have your own take on it, but what Beans on Toast does is write these songs for all of us.
He’s our old mate Beano at this point anyway.
Rating 9/10
