This is the latest release by the multi-talented son of Falkirk Adam Stafford (ok, it is from October last year and these are even older songs anyway, but…).
It is worth pointing out that this is on the Song, by Toad section of Bandcamp, only the lead single ’30 Years of Bad Road’ comes up on Adam’s own Bandcamp section. This track was released earlier in 2020 and was reviewed at the time.
There are nine tracks here, and as previously stated they date from a few years ago, lyrics discovered by Adam and refashioned during lockdown into rehashed versions of old songs.
It is not an easy listen, for example the first track ‘Thirty Years of Hard Road’ is a meditation on underachievement (or that is how he sees it) – self-doubt with guitar twangs…
Other themes are addiction, mental illness, beautifully arranged with guitar loops and other sound effects accompanying Adam’s always attractive vocals. This is deeply personal music but while the arrangements are lo-fi, they always work
Other tracks like ‘What Kind of Man’ include some lyrics which could even outdo Falkirk’s other chief purveyor of sexual explicitness (you know who you are Aidan!).
Stafford continues to be a singular artist who is well worth checking out.