#40: Outside : Edwyn Collins (AED Records, AEDEC26, 2019)
There was a six-year gap between the eighth and ninth studio albums, with Badbea being released in March 2019.
As was mentioned last week, Edwyn had devoted a great deal of time and energy to the documentary film The Possibilities Are Endless, as well as its accompanying soundtrack album. There was also the not insignificant step of Edwyn and his family making a move out of London and to the village of Helmsdale in the far north of Scotland, a move that would also involve Edwyn building a brand-new studio.
Badbea was the first record to be made in the new facility at Helmsdale. In an era when going making the effort to physically produce an actual single on vinyl was really more bother than it was worth, then it can be no surprise that the album was trailed only by a promo CD containing one song
A real throwback. A new-wave song sound and texture that comes in at under two minutes in length. It was 1977 all over again. A truly wonderful surprise that has proven to be one of my favourites of all his singles.
Was it a precursor to an entirely new direction via this entirely new album? Well….yes and no.
Badbea contained 12 songs, but only Outside was a punk thrash. Many of the other songs were a continuation of the sounds on Losing Sleep back in 2010 and Understated in 2013, but there were also some songs that were wholly nostalgic in nature, with perhaps the new surroundings stirring up memories that at one point in time had probably been totally forgotten in the wake of his illnesses. Some of these were ballads, but on the autobiographical ‘Glasgow to London’ we find a song that is a synth-led mid-tempo dance track that’s just the perfect tempo for those of us on the cusp of (or indeed, already in receipt of) our bus passes.
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Glasgow to London
Long ago back in Glasgow
Ambition drove my life
Now I note I must admit
I couldn’t give a fuck
I’m on that train
Glasgow to London
I’m on that train
Glasgow to London
It’s in the past
On the streets the couple blames
The fruit play fetch, the market stalls
In the 80’s, wild and free
Herring round the town
I’m on that train
Glasgow to London
I’m on that train
Glasgow to London
It’s in the past
Back to reality
Back to the grind
Look at the state of me
But I don’t mind
I don’t mind
I really thought it would have made for the next ‘single’ to push the album, but I was wrong.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 