ALBUM REVIEW: Beans On Toast – The Unforeseeable Future/Knee Deep In Nostalgia (Botmusic)
You know December has dawned when ‘drunk-folk’ singer Beans On Toast releases his annual album on the first of the month to celebrate his birthday.
But one of the few positives of this awful year has been that to celebrate turning 40, Beans (real name Jay McAllister) has graced us with not one but two new records.
Knee Deep In Nostalgia and The Unforeseeable Future are his 12th and 13th albums of his prolific but hugely under-rated career, and they’re very different beasts.
KNID is a full-band album produced by folk-punk hero and long-time friend Frank Turner. It’s packed with reflections on good times, and leaves you with a real warm glow.
From songs harking back to the good old days of The Village Disco to What Would Willie Do?,a tribute to country legend Willie Nelson, this is a feelgood album from the start.
Secondary school drama teacher Mr Lee who “really helped me work out the person I wanted to be later” is the subject of Favourite Teacher, while Once Upon A Time is a reflection on his adventures and misadventures during the decadent Camden scene of the noughties.
Beans is a happy family man these days, however, and Album Of The Day is an endearing pop ballad about sharing music with his young daughter, listening to The Beatles, Paul Simon, Bob Marley, Dolly Parton, Beck, The Prodigy and The Clash.
Where KNID is an album full of positivity, love and heart-warming reflection, TUF is almost its polar opposite, and sees Beans at his cynical best. Recorded alone, at home during lockdown, with just an acoustic guitar and piano for company, it’s dedicated to “the shitshow that has been the year 2020”.
He has a knack of putting thoughts and fears into words, and producing songs which really resonate, and does it in spades here, from start to finish.
Lockdowns, panic buying, social distancing, furloughs, home schooling, working from home, live stream gigs, statue toppling, and all the other things which have been become ‘the new normal’, come under the Beans microscope.
Opener Strange Days sets the scene. Written, recorded and released in a week, it was the first in a series of lockdown singles which captured moments in time as the world was turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Human Contact reflects on missing pubs, clubs, football, gigs, festivals and meeting up with friends, while Chessington World of Adventures is a barbed attack on the Government’s mishandling of the early days of the pandemic.
Arseholes – possibly the standout track here – needs little explanation, and contains one of my favourite lyrics: “Whatever happened to that Government app, you know how much they spent on that/It’ll never see the light of day, but the contract was awarded and their mates got paid.”
Glastonbury Weekend pays tribute to the greatest festival in the world on the 50th anniversary that never was, while Save The Music emphasises the importance of live music to many people’s lives and livelihoods.
There are uplifting moments too; Got Each Other is a love letter to his wife, and Patience, simply about being good to each other.
The Unforeseeable Future is possibly the best album of Beans On Toast’s career, and one which will resonate long after we’ve all being vaccinated and life has returned to something resembling normal.
Knee Deep In Nostalgia 7/10/The Unforeseeable Future 8/10.
