Malcolm Holcombe

★★★★

Tricks Of The Trade

NEED TO KNOW MUSIC. CD/DL/LP

Digital reappearance for a 2020 vinyl-only album, with bonus track.

The “Deluxe” edition, it says on the CD sleeve; hardly a word you associate with gritty, straight-talking Malcolm Holcombe. The fold-out packaging full of his drawings is nice and so is the extra song (Windows Of Amsterdam; Mary Gauthier guests), which boosts the tracklist to 13. But if albums sold on quality alone, this would be a bestseller. It’s Holcombe’s most powerful yet – quite a feat considering his excellent catalogue. A heap of highlights, starting with Money Train, which gives Tom Waits a run for his money, and Misery Loves Company: smart, sing-along classic country of the John Prine kind. Dylan comes to mind too, on some urgent folk-blues. These are songs about greed, delusion and indifference in a country run by con artists (politicians, preachers and the former President), sung in a voice that’s dusty and worn, but gruff enough to handle anything.