Yes. Get over it. Now let’s talk about Baxter Dury’s new album Floor Show.
Following on from his highly acclaimed debut Len Parrott’s Memorial Lift, Baxter proves that this was no fluke. Floor Show takes Baxter even further away from the safe waters of home. He’s sailing off the chart now…and hopefully up it too.
Floor Show sounds like it was recorded in St Paul’s Cathedral, with vocals added in the whispering gallery. Narratively, it’s seems to be about a disintegrating relationship, although this is no confession booth cupboard emptier. In fact, it is so otherworldly, that the Society of Psychical Research might launch an investigation into Baxter and his recording methods. Guitars float like ectoplasm, Wurlitzer’s spin beneath mirror balls, summoning the presence of spectral beings, swaying to luxurious, narcotic music that predates trip hop by a good sixty years.
First Single, Lisa Said (out August 8th) is a sort of Bowie meets George Harrison corker with loads of acid guitars and strange seaside organ, a heartbreaker of a song. Cocaine Man is a rambling narrative, recalling through the glistening mists of time, that most perfect of summer afternoon activities – scoring dope. Baxter’s stream of consciousness chatter captures the language of the seriously gakked to perfection, recounting important details - such as wearing immaculately pressed blue trousers.
At times, the lyrics are almost inaudible, a tiny raft in a sea of space echo, space echo, space echo…it’s still going on. You get the impression that Baxter has to nudge the band out of their reverie to tell them there’s a chorus coming up in a minute. Not casting any aspersions here, but the band are Damon Reece on drums and Mike Mooney on the electric guitar- both former members of clean living combo Spiritualized.
On Waiting For Surprises, it seems that Van Morrison might be about to enter the chatroom, as Celtic soul keyboards spin across the mix. A lovely idea perhaps, but Baxter is in no need of star collaborations just yet.
“This is a lesson for people who are wrong”. Young Gods is the pivotal track on the album, and this lyric is perhaps Floor Show’s most telling. Beneath the psychedelic sonic haze, Floor Show might be giving more away than was first supposed. Let’s look at the evidence: Parties, cocaine, cages, ‘No matter how hard you try, you fall from grace’. The last song is called Dirty Water. Perhaps Baxter Dury has done his laundry in public after all.