- Label: 'Last Night From Glasgow'
- Genre: 'Indie'
- Release Date: '28.4.23.'
Our Rating:
Culture Gun is the 12th album by Bristol based legends the Blue Aeroplanes and was recorded on both sides of the pandemic, in part due to main man Gerard Langley being hospitalized and of course all the pandemic madness. The album marks the return of Guitarist Rodney Allen to the fold as the main addition to the line-up of the band since there last album.
The album opens with Hips Like Cigarettes a song whose intro may have your jaw dropping at the guitars, as this song sets up the anger and bile at the heart of this album, raging against everything currently going on, the Dickensian nature of the current British government, as people starve, the sustained notes from the keyboards allow the guitars to fly off and rage all over your speakers. This also pays sideways tribute to the late David Crosby but was of course written and recorded while he was still with us.
Waking Up In The Ghost Removal Van talks about the earthquake yet to come, well sadly it did last week, Gerard is raging against the world with the vocals almost a spoken word prose piece that leads to anguished howling, as they ask are you happy?
The first single Building An Ark For The Anthropocene is a bit of a mouthful of a title, while not an exactly catchy single, as they rail against the wrong-headed notion of wanting to live in a mono culture, they really would rather be living in a quadrophonic world, they want to tear the play house down so everyone gets an equal chance, as they tell you to put your devices down.
Apostle Spoons is a song for everyone who watches Antiques Road Trip and Bargain Hunt who drools over the apostle Spoons they try to make a profit with, as this opens more reflectively, as Gerard tells us how he believed in those Apostle Spoons, the hushed vocals seem super intense as the reminiscence of Christmas and Easter's past, as they wonder what happened to their childhood Apostle Spoons.
Someone (In The Arms Of No One) is an anthem for those desperately in need of someone to hug them, the crunchy guitars come and go as this has more of a late 60's feel to it.
Half A Crown has nothing to do with the rather rude song I learnt as a kid, then spent years arguing over what the correct lyrics were, this is a nostalgic look back on the days when you might have been given Half A Crown for pocket money to spend buying Nana Mouskouri's song Half A Crown.
20 20 is about that most benighted of years and not the vision, this is a lament for a terrible time for most of us, when the visionaries are nowhere to be found. The sort of year that you might have moved from Berlin to Basingstoke and had all the regret that decision might bring.
(An Unlikely hit Of) Adoration is a garage rocker that allows Bec Jeavons to take the vocals and some delicious sax breaks, on a song that drives along like you need to hear it blasting out loud so you too can feel the Adoration.
Bulletproof Coffee- A Snake-Oil Shot is furious and sardonic in equal measure, at what you might order in the sort of desperate post-modern coffee shop you find yourself in, dealing with the hipster and how you'll need to shout out your order if you have any hope of getting it, this feels like it was performed after they all downed triple ristretto's.
The album closes with Lapdogs In The Wild a slow reflective acoustic song that almost sounds like all About Eve's Martha's Harbour, as Gerard gets all wistful asking all sorts of questions, telling you how to work things out and not be so selfish and greedy.
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