Like a political stopped clock, Jon McClure’s glory day has finally arrived. Back in New Labour’s 2007, outspoken Sheffield politico McClure was wise to keep his opinions in the papers and off his records. In 2017, with a politically engaged youth hoisting socialism up the mast, the time has surely come for The Reverend’s fiery diatribe album Oh Jeremy Corbyn!.
Instead, McClure has followed the amorphous, psychedelic magic of 2015’s Mirrors by upping sticks to Thailand to record another track-merged suite of folk (Juliet Knows), psych blues (Too Tough To Die, Autumn Leaves), retro pop (Auld Reekie Blues, Monkey See, Monkey Do) and ragtime music hall (Carlene, Black Cat). It’s more concerned with the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej than the ascendance of Jezza.
A missed sitter, then, but another intriguing pop record – McClure dabbles in spooky country voodoo on Miss Haversham, Shinto pop on Bang Saray and, on Boomerang, even something you could only feasibly call jungle jazz.
