Aptly, a delayed* review for what is the indie troubadour and BBC 6Music staple’s first solo work in more than a decade.
Time marches on for all and the Peterborough songsmith has gone from the (maybe) first ever indie download single and viral video for ‘Hey Hey 16K’, to this, his first solo album in more than a decade, delivered on very modern / easy to lose* USB stick.
Stripped of bandmates The Validators, Hibbett is in solo mode on this 14 song collection, in the vein of Billy Bragg or Frank Turner, and reflecting on his own personal bugbears, making wry observations in the vein of Half Man Half Biscuit and Arctic Monkeys – fire drills, stag dos, poetry, and more specifically, dog poo (‘Blue Bags’), while ‘Agile’ is one for geek fans of project management methodology.
There’s also a sense of the passage of time – not just ‘Bad Backs’ ( the ‘Osteopaths of Glory’ mix) but ‘Someone Else’s Turn’ considers a sense that a new musical generation has arrived.
Hopefully one that can appreciate thoughtful, fun indiepop jangle.
This article originally appeared in the Lancashire Post.