easyworld - Kill The Last Roamntic
‘No criminal records, no pseudo-lesbian videos, no spandex, no rehab’ run the adverts for the second full length album by the Eastbourne trio. In a musical climate that seems to revolve around the love life of the London scenesters and whose arse NME/ Jo Wiley and Zane Lowe are currently licking it’s good to know that somewhere there are still people making honest albums.
Whilst Glenn Hooper (drums) and Jo Taylor (bass) are an integral part of the band, ‘Kill the Last Romantic’ is certainly singer/ songwriter Dav Ford’s album. Possessing that odd talent of making upliftingly sad songs the album opens with the plea of the title track, ‘play back this tape I swear you’ll see/ I only wanted you to be with me/ oh kill the last romantic/ then come back for me’. It’s a theme that runs throughout the album which is a darker, slower and sadder affair than debut ‘This Is Where I Stand’. Including both singles (‘2nd Amendment’ and the sublime ‘Til the Day’) as well as gems such as ‘Tonight’, ‘When You Come Back, I Won’t Be Here’ and ‘Celebrity Killer’ the album falls flat with ‘You Have Been Here’ but one dud track out of twelve isn’t bad going.
To me this is a heartbreakingly, hopeful, end-of-relationship-wipe-the-slate-clean kind of record and whilst there could be a tendency to wallow in self pity, Ford manages to keep a perspective on things (perhaps best summed up in ‘Saddest Song’ – ‘there is nothing serious enough to lose tomorrow’). Whilst this is undeniably a fantastic album, where it sits in today’s musical climate is anybody’s guess. With their gigs still populated by Marilyn Manson fans it may in the past have be hard for easyworld to achieve the recognition they deserve but with this album they might just redress the balance.