I always look forward to the new Vinny Peculiar release for no other reason than you always get something different but the same. Let me expound. Vinny is a wordsmith steeped in ironic but painfully accurate observations of how we all live, breathe and exist and yet he has the capabilty to detach himself as if we are all in one of those snow ornaments and he is the onlooker. I get the impression that Vinny is entrenched as deeply in the quicksand of life as the rest of us and that his music and lyrics are his escape route.
For Vinny major success is well overdue and yet it would spoil him. But what is success? This album is surely one that will live on for a lot longer than say the latest Franz Ferdinand waffle. As Vinny points out in the excellent 'Women and Men':
"How do you know for sure, you've made the right choices?, listened to the right voices?
Good people turn into bad. The pursuit of all that happiness can only make you sad"
From the opening irony of "Sometimes i feel like a King, in spite of myself" the tone is set for frighteningly telling introspection. 'Welfare Statement' will have Civil Servants running for cover, while 'Success' and "Uniform' deal conformity a crucial blow.
Often with a melancholic ambience the songwriting is fascinating throughout but Manchaeters unfavourite son surpasses himself on 'To Hell with Fashion' whcih sounds like the Smiths jamming with New Order. Again a biting attack on modern culture:
"Say no to the sartorial conspiracy of modern times. To hell with with all your stupid friends. To hell with money, to hell with fame, to hell with celebrity, to hell with the brand new brand names".
Again in 'Inertia' tha subject matter is banality, but this isn't slit your wrists stuff. There's always a humerous undertone to Vinnys output and long may that continue. Bizarrely the avant garde jazz saxophonist John Coltrane is namechecked twice on the album. It could be a co-incidence or a fact only Mr. Wilkes could explain.
Rating: 4/5
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