ALBUM REVIEW: Beans On Toast – Kill Them With Kindness (BOTmusic)
Beans On Toast is the chosen nom de plume of Essex singer-songwriter Jay McAllister, who rose out of the UK folk scene in 2005.
Astonishingly prolific, it’s been his custom since 2009 to release an album every year on 1 December, his birthday, and this is his 19th in all (there were two in 2020).
He sings about matters ranging from personal to political, and from the mundane to matters of global importance, all with the same all-seeing gaze. If he’s made a bad album, I haven’t heard it (and I’ve heard them all).
Known for his self-deprecating humour, he’s gone from being a ‘drunk-folk’ singer and self-confessed casual drug user, to responsible husband, father, and, as it turns out, cat owner.
He calls Kill Them With Kindness “a time stamp of my thoughts and feelings from the past year on planet Earth”. It contains songs about topics as disparate as the state of the world, the rise of AI, trees, late nights in music venues, art, love and his new cat.
It’s comfortingly familiar, but far from a case of ‘same old, same old’; there has been an evolution in his sound. Starting out as a solo singer armed with just an acoustic guitar, Beans has played live for the past few years with a full band, and they joined him in the studio to make this album.
Over the course of 13 tracks, he puts the world to rights on songs like Gods, Children And Robots and The Fall Of The Establishment, and celebrates creativity on The Great North Road and Comfortable In The Counterculture.
Pelican Crossing lays bare the absurdities of the modern world, while The Glastonbury Oak celebrates trees, festivals and music venues, and how important these things are to him.
A Real Rock N Roller is a heartfelt tribute to ’60s countercultural icon Loraine Burgon, while Taylor Swift For President is a tongue-in-cheek look at why pop stars might make better leaders than politicians.
Big Night Out In Shrewsbury and That’s Why I Don’t Drink Tequila Anymore are a nod to his wild years, while the harmonica-driven Our Cat is an admission of the calming qualities of pets.
There’s more domestic bliss on Happy Birthday Baby, which is a love song dedicated to his wife, and things are closed out with Magicians And Outlaws, another celebration of creativity and one of his favourite venues.
Beans On Toast hits the road with his band in March 2026. Tickets are available HERE. In the meantime, sit back and enjoy another slice of rumination on matters great and small. 8/10.
