Album review: Davey Woodward – 6 Miles East Of Here 5 Miles North Of Nowhere
In the mid-eighties Davey Woodward was the singer/songwriter with indie pop band The Brilliant Corners. Back then the songs were super catchy jangly guitar numbers and Davey’s lyrics were full of teenage angst. Twenty odd years later and his lyrics still reflect life, but now the guitars are acoustic and the songs are of middle aged contentment, the type people love to play at dinner parties, right? Wrong! Davey Woodward may be older but his angst has stayed loyal to him – it too has just grown a bit older.
And so we have his debut solo album ‘6 Miles East Of Here 5 Miles North Of Nowhere’. Setting out it’s stall early it kicks off with the forlorn ‘Everyone’s Dying’ (why don’t you fuck off and leave me alone/everyone’s dying and everyone’s gone) and proceeds through tales of growing older and regret, loneliness and infidelity. The songs though less poppy than the ‘Corners in their heyday, are still beautifully crafted and lyrically as sharp as ever; in particular the stunning ‘Copacabana Pills’ (A million magazines that make you feel bad/when you’re getting old you put on the flab/never made a shirt look so bad/trying to pull in this place it’s just sad) would surely resonate with pretty much every C86 era indie kid who hasn’t thrown in the musical towel and embraced the likes of James Blunt.
Whether it’ll gain much of a new audience remains to be seen, but ‘6 Miles East Of Here 5 Miles North Of Nowhere’ is an excellent, if slightly grumpy collection of songs. 4/5
Mark Cousens
Out 4th October on Wearitwell Records
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