Haunted is the latest album by Bill Pritchard who many people think of as the J.D. Salinger of pop. The album was recorded in Hamburg and Newcastle Under Lyme with an un-named backing ensemble and production team.
The album opens with the single Perpetual Tourist that has gently evocative keyboards for this tale of Bill always being the Perpetual Tourist in relationships and life, it doesn't matter what he does, he is never a local, so he is in line with the Gang Of Four, even when he is at home he feels like a tourist, will he find another decent job along the way.
Smile he wants to see you looking happy, no matter what happens to you in the dark days we live through, this almost feels like an act of bravery these days, but Bill has plenty of jangle pop scenarios for why you should be smiling, while youth has gone away and old age approaches. The Quarter has a wonderful repeating brass motif for all the beauty and wonder he finds in you, while you wander through The Quarter, he is searching for the dignity within the woozy guitars.
Curious Feeling is thoughts and feelings for someone he knows who can quote Billy Liar effortlessly, this only makes him want to look deep into your eyes and spend time with you, with the chanson meets chamber pop backing bringing you gently closer together.
Suburb Of The World is the small-town reveries from the edge of the city, slow gentle backing allows all the lyrics to sink in and the wonder of this tale to slowly permeate. Sweet Melody is the sparsest of love songs spelling out why you transfix Bill, this slowly builds, strings are plucked and Bill goes on his way.
Intrigue And Wonder is memories of Symphony Sid and his compadres, the evocation of miraculous conversions to religion and out the other side. He feels those blues before the brass section comes in to cheer him up again.
Lillie is reflections on life in war time and beyond, how do you survive when the bombs start to fall, when your only survival instinct is to start singing and dancing towards better days, will Bill need to be a pirate to survive.
The title track Haunted is slow acoustic memories of the things you did together than now Haunt Bill, he no longer needs things to be quite so heavy, but he is happy to have truly lived with you, than to have not lived to the full, getting up to all sorts that it's probably best not to talk about.
Sunsets In Poland has a list of qualities of the light and shade thrown during Sunsets In Poland, how they refract the light and dance, with the organ sounds never quite dancing a mazurka, but always on the fringes of something elusive.
Imperfect has slow reflections for someone who leaves records at the bar for the Comptoir, I assume he has his stock of Arletty and Brel recordings to share, chilled and relaxed reflections of what may have been. The album closes with Oxygen with carefully picked acoustic guitar with reflections on why you are the air that he breathes, his reason for getting up and living life. This is a wonderfully mature love song.
Find out more at https://shop.tapeterecords.com/bill-pritchard-haunted-4475 https://www.facebook.com/billpritchardofficial https://www.billpritchardmusic.com/ https://billpritchard.bandcamp.com/album/haunted
