I am exactly five years and two months older than Beans On Toast. I know this because every year, on December 1st, the most original singer/songwriter on these shores, releases a new record to mark his birthday.
This year, though, is different, because this year we get double Beans as it were, with two albums emerging, and I thought it would be fun to review them as standalone records without listening to the other one before I review it.
As it happened, the one I picked first, was “The Unforeseeable Future”, which is – as it were – old school BOT, set in the modern era. That is to say, it is acoustic, it sounds “live” (and I don’t have any press material for this, so I don’t know if I am talking rubbish or not) but it is very much a 2020 record. That is to say, it is about the pandemic, and the confusion, the anger, the awfulness, the human cost of the mistakes, the gambles, that our leaders have made and taken.
On one hand, you are probably thinking, like I did “Christ, the last thing you need is to be reminded”, but on the other, this is Beans. He writes like no one else, and somehow he writes with such tenderness, such skill, and such warmth that the way he frames these things is universal.
Some of these tracks have been in the domain for a while. “Strange Days” is the start of the journey, and thus the start of the pandemic, from the panic buying to the depression, and its just as good as when he released it. There can’t be anyone that doesn’t hear their lives here.
Then there’s the ones that only Beans would do. “Human Contact”, for example. The plaintive pay-off line of “….and I miss that” reveals some real sadness. The way he writes is so for want of a better word, human. Like I love Springsteen and Dylan, but their characters aren’t me, you know? BoT is the natural extension of Billy Bragg, he’s just a bloke who understands people.
Political too, when he wants to be. “Chessington World Of Adventures” is a vicious condemnation of populism in general and the Tory filth in particular – but you don’t need my world view (the word “filth” gives it away), to see the brilliance here.
“Glastonbury Weekend” casts us all as social animals, who need to be around people, and the wonderful “What Colour You Are” juxtaposes the Space X mission with the riots in America quite brilliantly, while “Save The Music” – with all its Frank Turner-isms – is another that was released before the album came out, pleading from the bottom of his heart for the safeguarding of small venues (the type that Beans belongs in, frankly, playing these songs to people who get it, there’s no one better).
But what he’s brilliant at is putting you in the songs. In his life, as it were. “Got Each Other” is both harrowing and beautiful at the same time. “Arseholes” takes issue with the corruption at the top, while an album that is fragile and raw, adds some piano for “Trying To Keep The Lights On”, while “Patience?” tries to end it with some light at the end of the darkness, with this simple thought: “what really makes the world go round is generosity”, and when you think about it, isn’t that it?
And shouldn’t the best writers reflect your life, their lives, the world around us? The answer is yes, and on The Unforeseeable Future” Beans on Toast has made the definitive 2020 album.
Rating 9.5/10
