“I’m as proud and as disappointed of this CD as anything I’ve ever done…” Dan Treacy says of these recordings from Summer 2005, a few months before the My Dark Places sessions. Friends in New York, the Baskervilles, raised �1000 to be given to Treacy on his release from prison (for, rumour has it, either shoplifting for drug money, or dealing class A drugs), on the proviso that he use it in the recording studio.
The results will test the devotion of even the most ardent fan, as it’s more a collection of odd, absurd demos and unfinished songs in a variety of styles. The Eminem Song (‘I wrote Part Time Punks/My name is Dan, D-A-N’ is an appalling attempt at self- (obsessed) parody. The Peter Gabriel Song has a lethargicallyspiteful black humour, but many of the songs are full of maudlin selfpity. Treacy’s na�ve genius of old does occasionally emerge: the infuriating, yet magnificent, title track sees him become a five-yearold in the back seat of a car on a long journey. “It’s funny ’cause it’s true” said this writer’s 10-year-old son. A righteously shambolic cover of The Killers’ Mr Brightside is a triumphant mess, and a highpoint in an album of lows.
