Love, Simon
Love, Sex And Death Etc
Swinging from love songs ("ME AND YOU" and "I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU ANYWAY") to hate songs ("THE FUCK-UP" and "I LOVE EVERYBODY IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD (EXCEPT YOU)") through all points in-between, the centrepiece of the album is the nigh on 7-minute long pop epic "L-O-T-H-A-R-I-O" "That song started early one morning when a photo popped up on Facebook. I couldn't sleep and seeing it reminded me that it was taken the evening I almost had a one-night stand. I then wrote out a series of Tweets about what happened (a lot happened) and originally, I thought it could be a poem to put on an album sleeve Bob Dylan style, but somebody replied saying, "It sounds like a Leonard Cohen song" so instead it became a tune. I played it solo for the first time when we toured Europe in the autumn of 2018. It gave the band a much-needed toilet/drink/fag break in the set." The non-musical influences for this record include his wife, his son ("AU REVOIR MY DUDE" written as a guide to life of sorts), the venal Conservative government ("I WILL DANCE" and "YOURE ON YOUR OWN"), ex-girlfriends ("NORTH ROAD") and his inability to pick up on signals ("YVONNE") whereas musically Simon was aiming for (but not always hitting directly) Nick Lowe, Kevin Ayers, Silver Jews, Ween and all the Kinks between 1971 and 1975.