The William Loveday Intention

Billy Childish mines his inner mid-’60s Dylan on four albums at once.

“To be alive, you have to remain a moving target,” opines Childish in the linernotes, revealing that William Ivy Loveday (not Hamper) is his real name, after the maternal grandmother who registered his birth. For some tastes, there’s been more movement around his noms-de-guerre these past 40-plus years than in his actual music. Under this latest alias, however, there’s a clear progression beyond ultra-basic garage-punk fury. On three of four simultaneous debut LPs here assembled from the Intention (his latterday CTMF augmented), Billy goes Bob, channelling Dylan’s initial electric period, complete with withering putdowns, Hammond organ and The Wave Pictures’ ace guitarist David Tattersall cast as Mike Bloomfield. On Blud

Under The Bridge, ‘Loveday’ rattles off an acoustic Simple Twist Of Fate, while The Bearded Lady Also Sells The Candy Floss is even more Blonde On Blonde than Nuggets-era tea-leaves Mouse And The Traps. Contrarily, People Think They Know Me… explores Southern roots idioms with equal gusto.