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Reviews - Ironing The Soul
Ironing the Soul Hug Records ***
Manchester must just be full of melancholy quirky singer songwriters
these days and here’s another to add to that lengthy
list. Vinny Peculiar [as opposed to Vinny ha ha?] is Alan
Wilkes and Ironing the Soul is a minor delight; a charm fest
of songs populated by marginal figures and dysfunctional personalities.
Suicide Dad [‘hosepipe or analgesic, tell your mummy
I feel sick’] is about as bleak and Smiths like as it
gets but the best aspect here is the leavening effect of Peculiars
dour Mancunian humour. As such he finds in even in the most
mordant scenarios a witticism and a pun. Musically it’s
quite textured- a full if subtle band sound with lots of handclaps
and instrumental charisma. A reference point? Like Vic Chestnutt
tooled up for an armed robbery.
THIS IS NOT TV
Ironing the Soul by
Vinny Peculiar
If you've ever shuddered to the richness of
Americana, had your emotions yanked and scored by wistful,
insular pop or warmed to a literate troubadour then "Ironing
the Soul" should without a doubt be your lifelong companion.Vinny
Peculiar is a man who can stand proudly in line alongside
the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Luke Haines and Shane McGowan
as one of Britain's great acerbic pop saboteurs. His subject
matter is constructed from the mundane and the everyday and
coiled in all the bleak glory of one of Manchester's finest
rainstorms though Peculiar is no run of the mill bedsit balladeer.
His songs are shot through with a sharp black wit which rather
than trivialising actually boosts the more sorrowful elements
of his work."Jesus Stole My Girlfriend" is a hilarious,
finely tuned slice of darkly subversive pop, the like of which
could have easily graced The Auteurs "Now I'm A Cowboy",
"One Great Artist" is a gloomy electro-pop tale
of artistic self obsession whilst "A Beautiful Woman
in Public Sector Management" is a slightly sinister peek
into the world of an office obsessive. I could give you a
blow by blow account of each lush, wondrous, subtlely executed
drama found on this album but that can be your joy to discover.If
you're sick to death of all those girly voiced lads with minor
chorded acoustics and watery emotions and want a singer/songwriter
worth getting excited about then Mr Peculiar is for you. Just
about the best this country has to offer.
Adam Fuller
www.thisisnottv.co.uk
UNPEELED MAGAZINE
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| Over the years, your reviewer's broadly
held the belief that the strangest of professions are
breeding grounds for the best pop stars. Let's face
it, if it wasn't for the gravediggers we'd probably
never have had Joe Strummer, Dave Vanian or, er, Rod
Stewart, while the teaching profession's thrown up brilliant
weirdness ranging from Bob Pollard from Guided By Voices
to Killdozer's Michael Gerald. Yes, I guess it also
accounts for Sting, but hey: no argument's foolproof,
right?
Anyway, one unlikely profession that has previously
produced a couple of superb performers (admittedly from
different ends of the spectrum) is psychiatric nursing.
After all, both Thom Yorke and Kevin Coyne have served
rock'n'roll and all its' foibles well and we'd be considerably
poorer without either's back catalogue.
But now a third name should also be added to that list.
You probably haven't heard of a mild-mannered male nurse
called Alan Wilkes, but in his stage capacity as VINNY
PECULIAR, there's every chance you will run across him.
Certainly if he continues to make records as rich and
strange as his debut "Ironing The Soul."
Actually, Vinny's just released this album's follow-up,
but first things first. Vinny/ Alan's based in Liverpool
and has rightly been receiving a small acre of good
press for "Ironing The Soul." Indeed, from the opening
track "Flatter And Deceive" alone, you know you're onto
something good as there aren't many people doing this
on a small budget with the audacity to kick off with
a mini-Spectorian epic, replete with piano, gospel choir,
strings and big tambourines. Lyrically, he's very witty
and droll too, as lines like: "I'd go to festivals,
I'd go abroad, I've still got "Sleeping Gas", but not
"Reward" prove.
Actually, if you're fond of pithy British wordsmiths
such as Jarvis Cocker, Luke Haines and - especially
- Steven Jones of Baby Bird, then the chances are Vinny
will be your bag. Tracks like "Suicide Dad", the amusing
sexual fumblings of "Dirty Weekend" and "Jesus Stole
My Girlfriend" are all well-observed and couple pretty
melodies (a little Fender Rhodes here, some expressive
pedal steel there) with descriptive narratives. "Dirty
Weekend" (sample lyric: "I played the Gigolo, you played
the whore") especially, wouldn't be too out of place
on Pulp's "His And Hers" and is even better for taking
place in Scarborough.
So far, so pastiche, you could say, but that would be
to sell Vinny short as he's clearly a keen observer
of life on his lonesome and for all their surface wit
and sardonic asides, there's an affecting emotional
pull to "Ironing The Soul"s best songs such as "Forgive
Me" and the closing "My Father The Organist". Both songs
touch on Vinny's favourite obsessions: religion and
mental health and both are truly excellent. The first
opens with the killer couplet: "Who stole the Christmas
money from your Gran? Now it's too late to pay it back,
she's dead and gone" and gets even better. The fact
it's hitched to a sublime melody doesn't exactly harm
its' chances either. "My Father The Organist," meantime,
is a fine way to sign off: a low-key acoustic confessional
with echoes of early Bowie and a simple, but beautifully-observed
paean to the inevitable betrayal of faith.
OK, so in places it doesn't quite work so well - the
fraught drama-pop with OTT Glam guitars of "Mr.Low"
is merely average, while Vinny's attempts to become
the North-West's equivalent of Nick Cave on "Operation"
also come to a sticky end - but overall "Ironing The
Soul" is a notable calling card from a man whose background
has no doubt helped him to cut into life's viccissitudes
with the effectiveness of a fresh scalpel. Entrusting
your ears to his tender care may well prove entirely
beneficial
TIM PEACOCK . |
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UNCUT MAGAZINE
Simon Goddard
LOGO MAGAZINE ****
(Hug)
When people attach a label like
'quintessentially English' to a
musician, more often than not it's
seen as a polite description of an
artist whose appeal stops at the border (and frequently well
before that). Vinny Peculiar should not be saddled with such
a description. Characteristically, he is
indeed the most English of contemporary songwriters - confessional,
deadpan and with the driest of humour - but he harnesses an
appeal that is essentially global.
Documenting tales of romance (the truly striking 'Jesus Stole
My GirHriend'), unrequited love ('A Beautiful Woman In Public
Sector Management') and, with a uniquely edgy whisper, death
('Suicide Dad'), 'Ironing The Soul' is a splendid album. Weaving
an impressive montage of stories together with a host of well-drawn
characters, all different yet all strangely connected through
their apparent separation from society, Vinny Peculiar has
run his wand through the underbelly of society and unearthed
a collection of heart-warming lales that can't help but draw
comparisons with Nick Cave. It may have been made in England
yet 'Ironing The Soul' is instantly accessible wherever you
are; it is musical poetry personified.
""""
Matt Brown Logo Magazine
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How the hell the acoustic music scene developed
from the relative abyss of ten years ago to the heights it
soars at now is always going to be an unknown quantity, but
former psychi-nurse turned singer-songwriter Vinny Peculiar
(real name Alan Wilkes) sets his stall out from the word go
on his new album “Ironing the Soul.” “You
can call me Vinny Peculiar, but it’s not my real name
– I made it up all because my real one is lame”
he sings on the opening track “Flatter and Deceive,”
a full on country grower before going on to tell his life
story. If it sounds corny, it works amazingly well in the
context of the music, and Peculiar’s guitar playing
and songwriting are second to none – mixing americana
chord changes and instrumentation with the ear for a good
tune of the type Joe Pernice is so accomplished at, but with
typical English wry introspection thrown in, he’s probably
got more in common vocally and lyrically with Billy Bragg
than anyone else that immediately springs to mind. Musically
too, the arrangements include mandolin and pedal steel and,
well, everything you might not expect to hear on the album.
“Jesus Stole my Girlfriend” in particular calls
to mind Grant McLennan’s take on country from the early
nineties and like the best music, leaves you feeling warm,
amused, but still kind of melancholy. It’s an album
of two halves essentially, and the Divine Comedy/Baby Bird
type pop sensibilities of half of the album might verge too
much over into fey indie-pop territory for some, but hey –
Aztec Camera were a cool band. Peculiar’s a cool bloke,
and “Ironing the Soul” is a delicate, surprising
and, to those not immediately charmed, forgiving album. MW
Liverpool Echo Feature
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