Album review: Lupen Crook – The Pros and Cons of Eating Out
It’s not often that something good comes out of the Medway Towns. Currently Billy Childish is the area’s best known musician, though he’s more famous for releasing records that don’t sell rather than storming the charts. So when in 2006 Lupen Crook came on the Medway music scene, sounding like a more lucid, better educated and musically more skilful version of Pete Doherty, people had high hopes. Over the next 4 years he released two albums and several singles, most of which received critical acclaim but failed to make much of impact in the public consciousness. Now on the eve of its release, will his third album fare any better?
‘The Pros and Cons of Eating Out’ is a real mix of styles and influences. Though the music is predominantly folk rock (albeit a modernised indie version) punk, Julian Cope, Pete Doherty, Bob Dylan, ska and the Pogues all seem to play a part in shaping Lupen Crook’s sound. While lyrically it’s sometimes aimed at the dark underbelly of the human psyche, sometimes romantic and ocasionally introspective but always sharp as a tack, musically it veers wildly from soft ballad to violently chaotic, sometimes in the same song. If this sounds bad trust me it’s not. For all its uncertainty in its identity ‘The Pros and Cons of Eating Out’ is a remarkably cohesive album and the different styles and influences within only serve to make it a more captivating and breathtaking listen. All the songs here are superb but my favourite is ‘Ode To Fucking Everyone’ a song about being an outsider and intolerance in society (So this ode to fucking everyone and all of us that don’t belong/the irish black and the british brown/to the mosque they built in Chatham town).
If there’s any justice in the world this will herald the start of a successful career for Lupen Crook, but then if there were any justice in the world every single X-Factor winner would have their tongues ripped out so they could never murder another song. 4/5
Mark Cousens
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