Bobo Integral Records (vinyl); Sound Asleep Records (CD); also on download/streaming platforms
THERE’S an autumnal air of regret in many of the lyrics of this, the Edinburgh band’s 16th album: regret for the passing of time, for relationships that have expired. And nowhere is this better illustrated than on the closing track, You’ll Always Be There, a song so exquisite in its melancholy acceptance that a relationship has run its course that it demands to be re-played, time and again.
“Did you notice me losing my way?/I look focused but I waste every day”, it opens, frontman Andrew Taylor singing over an unobtrusive wash of guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. “If you think that I know, then you’re probably wrong/ Then I think it’s safe to say goodbye …” At least, the other person, he acknowledges sadly, “will always be there in my life”.
It’s a terrific song.
As ever on Dropkick albums, the songs on The Scenic Route are beautifully concise: the opener, Feeling Never Goes Away (“But I’m alive today/I’m alive today/ I hope this feeling never goes away”), with its stirring Byrds-like harmonies and 12-string guitar, barely reaches the two-minute mark. Watch out for its online video, incidentally, which neatly updates Bob Dylan’s video for Subterranean Homesick Blues by having each line of the lyric displayed by fans in locations as diverse as Madrid, Seattle, Germany, Paris, Gothenburg and Japan.
Other stand-out tracks on the album, which was mostly recorded live, include I’m Over You Goodbye, Home Early, and A Matter of Time.
Dropkick — Taylor, Ian Grier, Mike Foy and Alan Shields — are playing several gigs in Spain in April (they have a dedicated following there) but they are worth catching before then, at the March into Pitlochry festival (Mar 28), Edinburgh’s Wee Red Bar (Apr 3) and Glasgow’s Hug and Pint (Apr 4).
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