Over the years, your reviewer's broadly held the belief that the strangest of professions are breeding grounds for the best pop stars. Let's face it, if it wasn't for the gravediggers we'd probably never have had Joe Strummer, Dave Vanian or, er, Rod Stewart, while the teaching profession's thrown up brilliant weirdness ranging from Bob Pollard from Guided By Voices to Killdozer's Michael Gerald. Yes, I guess it also accounts for Sting, but hey: no argument's foolproof, right?
Anyway, one unlikely profession that has previously produced a couple of superb performers (admittedly from different ends of the spectrum) is psychiatric nursing. After all, both Thom Yorke and Kevin Coyne have served rock'n'roll and all its' foibles well and we'd be considerably poorer without either's back catalogue.
But now a third name should also be added to that list. You probably haven't heard of a mild-mannered male nurse called Alan Wilkes, but in his stage capacity as VINNY PECULIAR, there's every chance you will run across him. Certainly if he continues to make records as rich and strange as his debut "Ironing The Soul."
Actually, Vinny's just released this album's follow-up, but first things first. Vinny/ Alan's based in Liverpool and has rightly been receiving a small acre of good press for "Ironing The Soul." Indeed, from the opening track "Flatter And Deceive" alone, you know you're onto something good as there aren't many people doing this on a small budget with the audacity to kick off with a mini-Spectorian epic, replete with piano, gospel choir, strings and big tambourines. Lyrically, he's very witty and droll too, as lines like: "I'd go to festivals, I'd go abroad, I've still got "Sleeping Gas", but not "Reward" prove.
Actually, if you're fond of pithy British wordsmiths such as Jarvis Cocker, Luke Haines and - especially - Steven Jones of Baby Bird, then the chances are Vinny will be your bag. Tracks like "Suicide Dad", the amusing sexual fumblings of "Dirty Weekend" and "Jesus Stole My Girlfriend" are all well-observed and couple pretty melodies (a little Fender Rhodes here, some expressive pedal steel there) with descriptive narratives. "Dirty Weekend" (sample lyric: "I played the Gigolo, you played the whore") especially, wouldn't be too out of place on Pulp's "His And Hers" and is even better for taking place in Scarborough.
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So far, so pastiche, you could say, but that would be to sell Vinny short as he's clearly a keen observer of life on his lonesome and for all their surface wit and sardonic asides, there's an affecting emotional pull to "Ironing The Soul"s best songs such as "Forgive Me" and the closing "My Father The Organist". Both songs touch on Vinny's favourite obsessions: religion and mental health and both are truly excellent. The first opens with the killer couplet: "Who stole the Christmas money from your Gran? Now it's too late to pay it back, she's dead and gone" and gets even better. The fact it's hitched to a sublime melody doesn't exactly harm its' chances either. "My Father The Organist," meantime, is a fine way to sign off: a low-key acoustic confessional with echoes of early Bowie and a simple, but beautifully-observed paean to the inevitable betrayal of faith.
OK, so in places it doesn't quite work so well - the fraught drama-pop with OTT Glam guitars of "Mr.Low" is merely average, while Vinny's attempts to become the North-West's equivalent of Nick Cave on "Operation" also come to a sticky end - but overall "Ironing The Soul" is a notable calling card from a man whose background has no doubt helped him to cut into life's viccissitudes with the effectiveness of a fresh scalpel. Entrusting your ears to his tender care may well prove entirely beneficial.
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