David Ford: May You Live in Interesting Times (Believe)
The witty singer’s new LP features songs about social distancing, the Astrazeneca jab and Brexit
‘Better to be a dog in times of tranquillity than a human in times of chaos” is a Chinese saying that, by a process of mistranslation and interpretation, has been transformed into the apocryphal curse, “May you live in interesting times.” It has been cited by parliamentarians debating the crises of their day for over a century, from Irish Home Rule to the rise of Hitler. Now singer-songwriter David Ford has ironically redeployed it as the title of a witty, angry and emotional account of two years in the life of a touring musician unable to ply his trade due to government edict.
“Oh raise me high above the flood/ Deploy the soldiers in my blood/ The time has come, the moments gone/ The needle I can pin my hopes on,” he sings on 2 Shots, perhaps the first (and hopefully the last) singalong anthem to include the word “Astrazeneca” in the chorus. A lot of artists have released what might be interpreted as pandemic albums over these lean years, but Ford’s is the most brutally on-the-nose. On his bitter piano ballad The Bar is Open, he conjures a nightmarish drinking establishment where everyone (including the hostile barman) fears each other’s proximity, while the tender lament 6ft Apart ponders the difficulty of maintaining a safe distance from a shielding loved one. Other songs tackle the political and cultural divides of the Brexit and Trump eras, fretting about finding ways past ideological differences.
The 43-year-old Ford is a mostly unsung hero of British music. Emerging from the ashes of indie band Easyworld, his 2005 solo debut I Sincerely Apologise for All the Trouble I’ve Caused saw him hailed in prominent publications as a new Bob Dylan, but he turned out to be something more akin to an angrier and more cynical Billy Bragg. His work is perhaps too straight for modern tastes, recorded with old-fashioned clarity and separation, all emphasis falling on sharply turned lyrics. He has stayed the course as a compelling live performer, a one-man band whose use of loop pedals to build walls of sound is the best I have ever seen.
Making specific references to trademarked vaccines, the deep state and snowflakes carries its own risks. A towering finale, Person, Man, Woman, Camera, TV has particularly devastating verses, but listeners may need footnotes to grasp the significance of the chorus’s reference to a weird moment in Donald Trump’s presidency (when he kept repeating those five words to demonstrate his cognitive health). Ford has delivered a bulletin-board album with great dramatic force, but it might strain for impact in times that have arguably got even more “interesting” since he recorded it.
Also out Placebo: ‘Never Let Me Go’ (So): Machine Gun Kelly: ‘Mainstream Sell Out’ (Interscope): Koffee: ‘Gifted’ (Sony); Michael Bublé: ‘Higher’ (Reprise)