» Listings for 2023

1. 2023 Albums Thing 166 - Miles Hunt “Things Can Change”

   Posted on 5:00pm Saturday 2nd Sep 2023

   This has proved to be quite difficult to write. This album is honestly stunning so how do I communicate that without sounding like some kinda drooling eejit ?

   2022 was a damn good year for new albums. I usually struggle these days to find more than 2 or 3 new releases a year that catch my ear but this one joined albums by Ian Prowse, Rammstein, Lee Bains & The Glory Fires, John Mellencamp and Erica Nockalls to make 2022 a great year for new music.

   When Miles first sent it to me this album was titled “Lucid Is As Lucid Does” but that changed by the time of release. Recorded with a core band featuring Wonder Stuff members Pete Howard, Tim Sewell and Mark Gemini Thwaite there are also appearances from invited guests including Phil Hurley (Gigolo Aunts), Penfriend (aka She Makes War), Rat (Ned’s Atomic Dustbin), Morgan Nicholls (Senseless Things, Vent 414) and Billy Duffy(Vent 414, oh and The Cult).

   At it’s starting point Miles has said this was almost an album called ‘Everything’s worse’ but as the songs started to appear he said

   “I’ve done what I always do, I’ve written about what’s happening around me and what has happened to me in my past. I’ve endeavoured to make the music as uplifting as I ever have as I try to figure out what’s going on in my head, and you know what? Given all of the negativity I’ve just talked about, I’ve come to accept that we live in a constant state of flux. Things can and will change.”

   After talking about all the guests on this album the guest appearance that I like most on this album is Glen Johnson’s Saxophone. We first hear him right at the start on “I Used To Want It All”. I remember first hearing it and thinking “this is really gonna surprise some people”, those who think they know what Miles is gonna sound like are going to be seriously surprised. Glen and his sax are there from the off. I love a saxophone, years of listening to Detroit soul records and the E Street Band have ingrained that sound into me (the fact that Glen also plays for an E Street tribute band also means his style has something of Clarence Clemons about it) and to hear it on one of Mile’s songs pleased me greatly. I’ll repeat this song is VERY different for Miles and it fair blew me apart when I first heard it. It’s right up there with the very best he’s ever wtitten, trust me, I was a Roadie…

   Second song “And She Gives” is a beautifully written tribute to a dear friend of ours who did something so utterly selfless for a friend of hers that it still makes me tear up when I think about it. Title song “Things Can Change” introduces Penfriend on backing vocals. An uplifting song of hope and getting to work.

   We encountered “In My Sights” on “The Custodian”. It was written with another friend, Luke Johnson, during lockdowns and I think this is the 3rd different version Miles has released. “Lucid Is As Lucid Does” introduces another guest. You absolutely know that it’s The Cult’s Billy Duffy when he makes his entrance at 2 minutes and 27 seconds. I said before that I’m not a fan of guitar solo’s but this ain’t no solo, it’s BILLY DUFFY !

   Side 2 starts with the quite wonderful “A Picture By A Stranger”. I remember the times and the girl and the aftermath and this song is a perfect round up of all that. Glen Johnson and his Saxophone are back and the chorus is a killer too. “We Can All Do Better” features Morgan Nicholls and Pete Howard…it’s Vent 414 baby and there’s something we never thought we’d get again.

   Were it not for “I Used To Want It All” then “This Descent (Someone To Save Me)” would likely have been my favourite track here. Glen and his Sax are back which can only be good and again we have a chorus anyone would be proud of. “Teen Valentino’s” evokes the atmosphere of “Kids From The Green” from The Wonder Stuff’s “30 Goes Around The Sun”.

   It all rounds off with a tip of the hat to Jah Wobble and PiL on “Que Viva La Soledad” as Miles brings back Mr Duffy and Morgan to play some Vent Mk1 pop-tones. 

   I’m sorry if all of this was just stating the obvious and leading you through the tracks but I said earlier I found this one difficult to write about. It’s so fucking good you should just go buy a copy (if you haven’t already) and sit with the lyrics and Milo’s little intro notes to each song and just lose yourself in this wonderful, wonderful record. After I gushed a couple of days ago about his 11 year creative roll Miles said of this album at the time of release that it would be his last

   “I can’t imagine ever knuckling down to do something like making a record again. I’m leaning towards change…I’m not sure I feel the need to communicate with the world anymore. I want things to be quieter, I want my life to be calmer, and I want to rid myself of the anxieties that have plagued me my entire life.”

   But d’you know what ? Things can change…

   Things Can Change - https://youtu.be/nYp9Si8MBTo?si=ezj-KQJ0CzlLJvoU

   Buy It Here - https://thewonderstuff.bigcartel.com/product/things-can-change-cd-pre-order

2. 2023 Albums Thing 165 - Miles Hunt “The Custodian 1 + 2”

   Posted on 9:00am Friday 1st Sep 2023

   Miles released “The Custodian” in 2018, “The Custodian 2” in 2020 and this mammoth 4xLP 60 track boxed vinyl version in 2021. The idea was sparked by a conversation with the great Tom Robinson who asked Miles who he thought owned his songs. He answered whoever the publishing company were probably did, but ultimately, he did. Tom Robinson countered that all of their songs now belonged to their audience and that their position was as The Custodian, the person whose job it is to see that the songs are treated and performed with the respect the audiences deserve…and so “The Custodian” was born.

   The two collections are acoustic recordings of songs from right across Miles myriad musical stopping points, with The Wonder Stuff, Vent 414, The Miles Hunt Club, solo and collaborations with others, recorded as he would play them at his solo acoustic shows. Songs from the very first he wrote (“Speakeasy”) right up to new ones recorded for these albums. The hits and album highlights are all here, “Unbearable”, “The Size Of A Cow”, “Here Comes Everyone”, “Fixer” (this version of which is nothing short of astonishing). They sit alongside lesser known gems and B-sides like “Flapping On The Pier”, “Meaner Than Mean” and some new songs that would surface again later in other forms, “Custodian” and “In My Sights”.

   If I had to pick one song it would be impossible, but, side 3 of “Custodian 2” is a joy,  “A Great Drinker”, “Hush”, “Hot Love Now!”, “Life Before You”, “Immortalising Chase”, “A Yes & A No”, “Smoked” and “Better Get Ready For A Fist Fight”…man alive that’s a bunch o’ tunes.

   “The Custodian” is “yer old pal Milo’s” greatest hits and more (I’ll resist the obvious there), all beautifully recorded with shining acoustic guitars and vocals that sometimes feel like the singer is right there in the room with you. He’s threatening a 3rd volume too.

   Custodian - https://youtu.be/6F1jSFS38Qk

3. 2023 Albums Thing 164 - Miles Hunt & Erica Nockalls “We Came Here To Work”

   Posted on 8:55am Thursday 31st Aug 2023

   This is where things get difficult. I was sat in the pub recently talking with a friend about separating the music from the person who made it. We were talking in terms of people like Clapton and Morrissey, both of whom I detest both for their music and their obnoxious “views”. Now many of you will already know that Miles is my brother, some of you may have worked that out from reading between the lines in this blog. My brothers music has meant as much to me over the years as anything by Bowie or Paul Weller or Bruce Springsteen or any other of my musical heroes. I could count on one finger the number of his songs where I would say “ooh…I really don’t like that one” but here we are at a point where I have to separate the music from the person that made it.

   Well, I cant ! Since releasing The Wonder Stuff album “Oh No It's... The Wonder Stuff” in 2012 each subsequent release has been what I hear as “the best thing he’s ever done”, whether it be another TWS album (“Oh No…”, “30 Goes Around The Sun” and “Better Being Lucky”) or solo (2 volumes of “The Custodian” and “Things Can Change”) or as here with everyone’s favourite violinist Erica Nockalls. He’s been on a creative roll for the past 11 years that has been a pleasure and an awe inspiring thing to behold.

   This was Miles and Erica’s 3rd album together following “Not An Exit” in 2007 and “Catching More Than We Miss” in 2009. While both of those albums had a “full band” feel about them the stark black and white cover shot (taken in the tunnel beneath Amsterdam Centraal Station trivia fans) of “We Came Here To Work” heralds a more stripped back, acoustic duo feel. Miles has said of it

   “The music that The Wonder Stuff make is for nights out with your friends, what Erica and I have hopefully done with ‘We Came Here To Work’ is make music for nights spent at home in more genteel company.”

   It starts out with “When The Currency Was Youth”, I guess the title revealssome of the subject matter, which has some delicious lyrics and a melody to get you hooked from the off

    

   “For the avoidance of the truth we couldn’t give it away any cheaper,

   But when the currency was youth our pockets were so much deeper”

   Erica’s violin soars through the song as do her strings everywhere during this record. 

   The centrepiece of the record is “We Came Here To Work”, obviously, the whole album got named after it. Miles has been writing little introductory lines to his songs on the lyric sheets of albums for years, for this song he writes

   “I raise my glass to every brave soul that has ever had the courage to leave their homeland behind them in search of a safer and happier existence.

   And a pox upon those that would attempt to deny anyone that right”

   Miles doesn’t often write politically motivated songs but this one nails his argument. If it’s something you have difficulty with then perhaps re-read the second sentence above and react accordingly. We’re all human after all.

   “The door was open and the journey was long, We came here to work,

   And now we’re told that we don’t belong, And that really hurts”

   It is a more gentle and less bouncy record than much of Miles Wonder Stuff stuff. It’s thought provoking and very personal in places. It is difficult for me to write about these records with my confessed bias. If you’re a fan you don’t need me to tell you, if you’ve never heard Miles & Erica or TWS now might not be a bad time to start.

   We Came Here To Work - https://youtu.be/BbhFyPCnkwo