33 rebellions per minute
1994
Denzil, PUB
A tuneful, literate album of American-style folk, as if the early songs of Leonard Cohen were being
strummed and sung by a slightly clownish devotee. Oh, Denzil are Brits; you can tell by Denzil Thomas's
accent, and besides they title the album PUB and have songs entitled "Sunday Morning Henigsbury Head"
and "If Only Alan Won The Pools", all of which means zero when they're borrowing jokey country-western
moves for "Who Made You So Cynical About Me?" (the song's narrator himself, it is clear) or Dylanesque
harmonica rave-ups for "Autistic", a smart rant about a Thatcher-ruined country indistinguishable from the
Reagan-ruined one. Nor is their anything Brit-sounding about the half the songs that are straightforward
folk -- some strike me as so-so, but "Fat Loose Fancies Me" is amused and clever, while "7 Years In These
Boots" and "Running This Family" show how powerful a simple set of chord changes and clear, heartfelt
tenor vocals can be. "Cutie", about a Religious Right I didn't know the UK had, build from an
unaccompanied "I always have the children check, see what's on TV. They watch the first ten minutes, see
if it's suitable for me" to a fierce violin duet: "I love lovers, kittens, charity and real fur-lined mittens, and I
never stop to talk to foreigners who haven't yet been caught. I hang around the prisons and the courts, and
I'm writing to the papers all my thoughts...", then proceeds interestingly off the deep end. "Shame",
meanwhile, laments how good people can get their reputations ruined just from committing one massive
pension fraud ("you'd have done it too in her shoes") or one murder spree. Closing the album, the ominous
skeletal "Goodnight Darling" tenderly threatens to beat the song's addressee up. Or maybe that's just my
CD, because I bought it used and Denzil didn't get any royalities. Only fair, my fault entirely.
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