He’s repeatedly gone against the grain since he founded Liverpool’s legendary independent record store, Probe Records in 1971, but since his singular satirists Half Man Half Biscuit’s ace 13th album ‘Urge For Offal’ cracked the UK Top 40, Geoff Davies’ Probe Plus label has undergone something of a resurgence.
Of course, this eminent provincial indie imprint has been waiting for the masses to catch up for literally decades now. Yet, while it’s heartening to hear of Nigel Blackwell’s four lads who shook the Wirral leaning into their second wind, Probe Plus’ other stalwarts such as St. Vitus Dance or JD Meatyard are also long overdue some concerted critical kudos.
Regulars round here may already know the latter rather better as John Donaldson; formerly the frontman with ferocious, John Peel-endorsed East Lancs anti-popsters Levellers 5 and the equally under-rated Calvin Party. He reinvented himself as JD Meatyard for his eponymous 2011 debut and followed up with 2013’s well-received and arguably superior ‘Northern Songs.’
As with these two cranky, but compelling antecedents, Donaldson’s third, ‘Taking The Asylum’ (which is appropriately sub-titled “love songs and rage”) is, in the strictly broadest sense, a collection of anti-folk/ agit-pop workouts. Donaldson’s guitar and animated, close-miked vocals and Johann Visschers’ ad hoc drums and percussion provide the instrumental nucleus, while further crucial colouring comes from adept ex-Levellers 5 lead guitarist Steven Lindley (who very recently quit playing live with JDM) and highly versatile ex-Gone To Earth fiddler Dave Clarke.
As the album’s title and curt sub-title both suggest, Donaldson’s still appalled going on incensed by the state of the modern world he inhabits and indeed ‘Taking The Asylum’ includes some of his most visceral material to date; not least the furious protest song ‘4 Kids On A Gaza Beach’ (sonically based upon ‘James Connolly’ by Patrick Galvin) and coruscating, ‘Tokyo Storm Warning’-esque ’10 Miles Low’.
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Elsewhere, while the humbucking blues of ‘Waves’ summons up the bug-eyed intensity of vintage Levellers 5, songs such as ‘Never Seen A Kid Born Bad’ and the lurching title track (“You dress your kids in thongs and high heels and you say that I’m strange”) also show that Donaldson – like most folk in their right mind - is plainly at odds with numerous aspects of the human condition circa Century 21.
True to Donaldson’s word, though, a spate of gloriously idiosyncratic love songs do indeed balance out the rage driving at least half of ‘Taking The Asylum.’ Pepped up by Clarke’s fluid, Celtic-tinged fiddle, the playful ‘We’ll Always Have New York’ ensures the album sets out with a spring in its step; the life-affirming ‘We Got Today’ overflows with atypical positivity and the down-home, roots-flavoured ‘Satisfied Heart’ might just be the most poignant and tender three minutes ever to brandish a John Donaldson writing credit.
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