Rafferty has constructed a collection of ten songs that work as both a great piece of work but also a piece of archive material as he looks back on his life in and around music starting with the album opener ‘One Last Saturday Night’ a song he originally wrote in 2011 about the feeling of possibility and invincibility that would come with a weekend night out as he refers to.
‘James Asleep’ is one of those driving melodies reminiscent of other Liverpudlian bands with a jingle jangle guitar with a bassline to match. The bass may be a bit sombre but the prevailing mood is one of hope and happiness by the end.
Befittingly, the album is of this era, with tracks such as ‘This Is War (And I’m So Bored)’ about negative thought and having to cope with them in this difficult time for everyone and this is backed up by the final track of the album ‘Black Balloons’.
As Rafferty states in an exclusive interview, the process of the album was to describe a tough time, an album that is as much for himself than for others, but the universal appeal of this work speaks large.
All in all this album is one of genuine passion, of recalling past glories not for yearning but for embracing those memories as a moment of expression and how it expresses you.
There are moments beholden to guitars but not forgetting the influence of electronica on certain tracks such as the album opener that hums before the cascade begins, Rafferty creating this sense of unknowing within familiarity, in essence creating a new found sense of self.
Tracklist:
1. One Last Saturday Night, 2. The Curse, 3. James Asleep, 4. I’ll Kill You, Motherfucker, 5. This is War (And I’m So Bored), 6. Werewolf Shadow, 7. The Lost Homework of Isabella Perez, 8. The Fate of the Hero Montage, 9. Skinhead Suit, 10. Black Balloons
Doomshakalaka is out from Moshi Moshi Records on 5th June
