Another year, another album from Holland’s superlative band, bringing lovingly performed vintage sounds to the mainstream masses. It’s a prodigious work rate, with barely a 12-month gap between releases for well over a decade, and what the records lack in any kind of development or progression they more than make up for in foot-tapping party vibes.
Aided by regular vocalists Ruby Turner (Roll Out Of This Hole and three other cuts) and Sam Brown (’Tain’t Nobody’s Bizness If I Do), Holland has also corralled a few bonus guests for this outing. Michael McDonald brings an untamed howl to the raucous I’ve Got News For You, Alison Moyet is slinky on The Man That Got Away, and Booker T Jones’ Hammond organ does battle with Holland’s own grand piano on Blues For New Orleans.
Yes, several of these songs have been done better by others in the past, but Holland is to be applauded for keeping them alive and introducing them to a whole new audience. Not only that, his self-penned ode to the vast metropolis, London Belongs To Me, is perhaps the most evocatively beautiful song ever to feature harmonies from Chas & Dave!
