Jason McNiff reckons the title track here is his manifesto. If that’s the case, then still, its near namesake, “A Song For Everything” with its line, “This is my song of everything that my heart can take” will still make more sense than those glossy booklets of broken promises that will emerge before the election.
His ninth album is a testament to the timeless skill of the singer-songwriter. “Run Away With The Circus” is typical too. Personal, you guess, in that it seems to deal with the bravado, the alter ego that you need to go on stage.
By turns these songs are expansive – like Dean Owens almost – in “These Dreams Of You” or weather-beaten as he appears on “My Mississippi”.
The instrumentation is perfect too. As Matt Armstrong (who produces as well as playing Double Bass and Drums) is to the fore on the traditional “Bella Ciao” with its warm Latin breeze, likewise Richard Moore’s violin has a darkness on the outright folk tale “Chef Song”. And that’s before they all seem to come together on the lush, string-laden “Wedding Dance”.
That one, in common with many here, has the feel of a soundtrack to a film that was playing in McNiff’s head, as if the words paint the pictures in these vignettes.
He has an understated way of delivering them too. “True Love, Freedom” is as good as this type of music gets and it benefits hugely from the semi-whisper.
“No Good For You” changes tone, if not pace, and it recalls a Mark Knopfler solo piece.
“Too much truth is no good for you, yet “Three Chords and the Truth” is surely the stock in trade here. Certainly, the classic-sounding Americana that carries the title song seems to be as honest as can be. Almost like he doesn’t realise that a manifesto is supposed to have a transient relationship with veracity.
By turns lovely, extremely well done and thought-provoking, “Everything’s A Song” is more than a manifesto, it’s a statement of fact as much as a statement of class. Give it your vote.
Rating 8.5/10
