This is the best record Jackie Leven has made, and he has made a fair few. The firm drift into Americana, marked by 2005's Elegy For Johnny Cash, evolves further in an album that is rich in emotion and inspiration.
There is the trademark sentimen
tality with obligatory sinister foreboding in 'My Old Home', a sister song to 'Poortoun' from Fairytales For Hardmen.
'Innocent Railway' takes a slight loan of the bass line from 'Walk On The Wild Side' and shunts it up a soulful siding accompanied by what sounds like Stevie Wonder playing harmonica. Big JL's dexterity on the acoustic guitar is showcased to the full on the ragtime splendour of 'Olivier Blues', his lush baritone coating the song in sonic molasses. He takes a back(ing vocals) seat on the title track, a voodoo redneck tale sung by American country noir performer Johnny Dowd, all stark and scary but strangely hummable.
But Leven reappears, coming out of a radio during the stupendous 'A Dent In The Fender And The Wheel Of Fate', which also tunes into extracts from 'Heart In My Soul' sung by David Childers. It is a remarkably three-dimensional piece of music, powered by a languid jazz-funk bass line underpinning fluid guitar picking and urban horns.
This is the sort of record that should win Mercury Prizes.
Download this: Lovers At The Gun Club, A Dent In The Fender And The Wheel Of Fate
The full article contains 258 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
