the black watch, steered with a delicate and melodious craft by the prestigious and proliferate John Andrew Fredrick, are back to delight our senses with the cutely titled album ‘The Fuzzy End of the Lollipop’, replete with kitten imagery.
And it’s business as usual with this most consistently talented band where quantity of output never sees any dilution in quality whatsoever. Eleven songs of pure unadulterated jingle jangle pop filled to the brim with Frederick’s poetic and literate words delivered on a bed of melody and style.
Opening track ‘Marie Bouzkova’ sets the standard with its driving relentless forward motion with echoes of the Velvets. Apparently named for a professional Czech tennis player but not about her, the track sparkles with movement and layered guitars.
It’s followed by the shimmering trumpet-laced elegance of ‘Never You Mind’ which could well have sat in a Flying Nun compilation alongside The Bats and The Chills, with a little touch of the day-glo pop dynamics of Lightning Seeds. It is pop of the purest order with a melody that sticks like superglue. It’s going to take hypnotism to get this one out of my head – statuesque and beautiful stuff.
The video follows Fifi (video director Ian Holmes’ black cat) through the streets of London and onto a festival stage in front of an adoring audience while the spirited single keeps pace with her footsteps.
Taking the cue from the album cover which features four cats (it looks like a band photo, doesn’t it?), Holmes crafted a concept to include his own cat Fifi. Frederick says:
Ian’s done some lovely work on our other videos, so we showed him the cover and let him rip
Frederick adds:
All of my songs are about ways to console the listeners for the vicissitudes of life. We worry about so much in life. ‘Never You Mind’ is a reminder that that is often a waste of time. If you’ve been double-crossed, or star-crossed, or are just cross with life or your palm’s not been crossed with silver in some time, you know what to do!
‘Sorrow’s Crown’ starts with a thrilling gospel vocal choir before drawing back into an acoustic strum with Frederick’s vocal to the fore – delicate and raw. The guitar becomes a trill as strings begin to pick their way in the background creating a comforting bed as the songs builds up in intensity. The chorus returns, triumphant and anthemic to a resounding crescendo. Pulse quickening stuff. The crystalline guitars and hand claps launch us into ‘The Merry Kind’, a fine gambolling journey that has all the vestiges of the Dunedin Sound in its pores: a delicate wistful delivery.
The title track has a jungle backbeat and warped guitars, seeped in melancholy and reflection while ‘Falter, Sputter, Fall’ moves into shoegaze territory with a motorik spine: dense and complex, dreamy and slightly discombobulating with ripples of soothing sounds massaging the ears. Frederick says of the track:
This song is about how words always seem to fail us. Think if you had to describe and put into words the person(s) you love most. Good luck. Impossible! It’s the most shoegazey song on the album–by design, really Murky… like language.
There is a resultant hypnotic drone that sends you drifting off into the ether in a warm cotton wool ball. Immersive and delicious.
You are woken from a reverie by the crystal bounce of ‘Everything Changed!’, where Frederick’s open appreciation of The Beatles can be detected in the delivery, a psych infusion, harmonies and soaring choruses. ‘Stars At Last’ steers us back to the Flying Nun style bounce, with scaling backing vocals and Frederick’s vocals filled as always with a certain studied style, witty and observant, howling feedback shimmering in and out of the mix. ‘In Generalities’ has a whirling kaleidoscope of noises in the ether with a psychedelic tremble while ‘Her Halo’ has a fuzzy rock thrust to it.
Final track ‘Sorrow’s Crown – Bisque Mix’ returns us to the earlier track with more of an motorik beat, a resultant thrilling thrum and an eighties sensibility enhanced by delicate spanish guitar: a thrilling mix. It’s a welcome return and a gorgeous refresh.
the black watch have produced another triumph: an album that is so stuffed with melody and grace, it can barely be contained within a single dimension. Frederick’s influences are never in doubt: stretching from the Velvets, The Beatles to the sweet sounds of Flying Nun but he never copies nor produces a mere pastiche: these are eleven tracks that stand proudly on their own. His prolific songwriting is well documented, but his creativity and development is equalled by few.
‘The Fuzzy End of the Lollipop is out now and available through the link below and via all the usual sites.
For ‘The Fuzzy End of the Lollipop’, producer/engineer Rob Campanella (ex-The Brian Jonestown Massacre) doubles as bassist with master producer Scott Campbell (Stevie Nicks, Shelby Lynne, Acetone) who’s been with the band on and off since 1991, and Andy Creighton (guitar) who joined the band in 2017.
the black watch is John Andrew Fredrick (guitar, percussion, vocals), Rob Campanella (guitar, bass), Chandler Fredrick (bass, backing vocals), and Andy Creighton (guitar, bass, drums, string arrangements, backing vocals).
Feature Photograph: Steve Keros
