My Beautiful England is the grand statement comeback album by David Westlake who way back in the 1980's was one half of The Servants alongside Luke Haines, they didn't quite take off and David went and spent most of his time in academia, this album is a very welcome comeback.
The album opens with the title track My Beautiful England an insistent indie pop song, that turns some well-worn phrases into questions about the state of England, unsure if it really is a land of hope and glory still, also asking if the soldiers who sacrificed everything for blighty would be happy to have made that sacrifice for the country we have become.
War Memorial asks a lot of good questions as we enter this years memorial season as to the nature of the sacrifices made at The Somme and elsewhere, with some sixties inflected guitar as David sings about the last post and wonders if we can ever move on from the endless eulogizing of past glories, or slaughters, wondering if Kitchener is hero or villain with a brass section that is reminiscent of David Bowie's first albums songs about war veterans such as She's Got Medals and The Little Bombardier.
The Modern Ruins Of Old London Town takes a firm aim at property developers, who have ruined much of London in the pursuit of profit and erasing as much of Old London as they can, that hadn't been erased by the Luftwaffe as David takes us on a tour through London's more ancient parts, with the transformation of The Isle of Dogs into Docklands that’s happened since the start of the 1980's.
Bethnal Green Museum Of Childhood was a place I was taken to several times as a kid, both by my parents, the school and Synagogues Hebrew classes, this song in praise for that magical museum, that for anyone taken there in the 70's will still hold lots of great memories, as he sings the line "Take Me back where I started from," it hits the spot for me, as I was born about 800 yards or so away from the museum so in a very real sense it's where I started from.
Mallory Kept Climbing The Mountain takes us far from dear old Blighty and over to the Himalayas and Mallory's quest to be the first to climb Everest, but rather than just focusing on the successful climb by Hilary in 1952 it starts with his earlier attempts in the 1920's that failed to reach the perilous summit, with jaunty guitars and a sense of adventure for a man whose body was only found much much later.
E Is For the Empire has some very cool instrumentation as David discuss' the real price of empire and who paid the price at Mafeking and elsewhere.
Hayes, Middlesex is a paean for the West London suburb that was home to the EMI record pressing plant and many other factories housed in often remarkable Art Deco buildings, according to this song some wonderful churches too, this song may make you want to go and visit this most ignored suburb and that's no bad thing.
English Parish Churches talks about several city of London Churches and slowly evolves out to discuss some of our cities more remarkable churches, with nice chiming guitars as Hawksmoor hove's into view, with some nice 19th century gothic, a great affection for the majesty of many of the churches he sings about.
Regency Terrace wonders if the Regency Terrace your looking at is still a Regency Terrace, or has it been torn apart, the facade the only real thing about it, if it should still be a squat or a millionaires home and of course mentions Regency Terrace in Pimlico, the trumpets come in as a fanfare for criticism of all this facadism and modern attempts to replicate the glory that was the original Regency Terrace as an concept for living.
Marie Lloyd is an affection tribute to the absolute queen of the British Music Hall. This is restrained and in no way as bawdy as some of the shows Marie would have been involved in.
The Crusades has a whirling dervishes feel to it musically as questions are asked as to why you would need to go on a Crusade on Christ's behalf. While we try to figure out is General Allenby was a good or bad guy.
The Age Of Unenlightenment is a good description of our current malaise while wondering if there is a way out of it and back to a more sane and sensible time once more.
General Gordon's Last Stand tells the story of another bloody ending, of the English army fighting in places it wasn't welcome, in General Gordons case The Sudan, with some delicious guitar parts and an angelic backing vocals this is a fitting song about another famous defeat.
The album closes with Au Contraire Tony Blair that's in French, that seems fitting for a politician who did much to stoke the fires of division that have led us to where we are now. All while making sure we never got on with our close neighbors in any positive way. This also has a rather gallic feel to the music as if you need to be smoking a Gauloise to get the full effect of the song.
Find out more at https://davidwestlake.bandcamp.com/album/my-beautiful-england
