Edwyn Collins: Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation, review: A retiree with joy in his heart
Edwyn Collins recently announced his farewell 'Testimonial' tour, nine shows billed as a 'last lap around the UK' that will conclude in October. At 65, he is settling down for a quiet life in Helmsdale, in the northern highlands of Scotland, where he recorded this album at a home studio on a croft he owns with his wife and collaborator, Grace Maxwell.
Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation is Collins's 10 th solo album, a glittering gem of beautifully crafted songs the equal of any he has released in his career. The title was the original BBC World Service motto, which adorns an art deco radiogram speaker in Collins's studio. He employs it sweetly in a title song that lightly brushes off contemporary troubles in the world by referencing his own well-documented struggles with aphasia, following a double cerebral haemorrhage that almost killed him in 2005.
Although he has physical restrictions on his right side, with one arm locked in a permanent crook, the remarkable recovery of his singing voice and restoration of his musical abilities has been incredibly heart-warming to bear witness to. 'If I can talk to you, and you can talk to me, how can nation speak unto nation?' Collins asks over a gentle but propulsive groove.
There are shades of the off-kilter punkiness of Collins's only major hit, the deathless 1994 single A Girl Like You (which has rumbled across the airwaves and popped up on soundtracks for three decades now, and currently stands at over 136 million streams on Spotify). That sense of mantric grooving is evoked too on Strange Old World ('but it's my world') and the playful psychedelic coda to A Little Sign with its glockenspiel hook. Collins's songs are always elegantly assembled, with flowing melodies and countermelodies, delicate hooks, soaring bridges and replete with surprising touches that can make you reflect on the lyrical message from different angles.
As a prime mover in the 1980s indie rock scene with his DIY Scottish record label Postcard and wonkily brilliant post-punk band Orange Juice, Collins has been a minor yet significant figure in the British music scene for a long time. He is a purveyor of a critically admired brand of 'perfect pop' that was never really perfect, and rarely all that popular. His references tend to draw on dated ideals of Sixties beat groups, soft psychedelia and Northern Soul, with quirky touches that shift out of the realm of purist nostalgia. There is a gentleness to his oeuvre that makes even his rockiest charges easy on the ears, and a life-enhancing positivity that suggests music made with a smile on its face.
The 11 songs here are another slice of juicy joy, and the final track implies that it won't actually be the last we hear from him. 'I guess it's true, I'm working on a new song,' he admits on the outro bossa nova track, Rhythm Is My World. You've got to have something to keep you occupied during retirement.
Best New Songs
By Poppie Platt
Chappell Roan, The Giver
First performed back in November on Saturday Night Live, the most exciting young star in pop returns – post-Grammys win for Best New Artist – with a foot-stomping slice of country that sounds like an overtly sexualised, lesbian-power spin ('Baby, I deliver / Ain't no country boy quitter') on Shania Twain's classic anthem Any Man of Mine.
Cliffords, Bittersweet
There are some terrific shoegaze and post-punk bands emerging from Ireland, including NewDad, Just Mustard, Sprints and Cliffords, rising talents from Cork whose plucky latest single pays heartfelt tribute to their hometown.
Lizzo, Still Bad
Having made it out the other side of near-cancellation after she was accused of bullying by members of staff, Lizzo returns with a dancefloor-ready disco anthem accompanied by – what else! – a video depicting her being covered in fake blood and chased by villainous dancers with bird beaks. A not-so subtle nod to the Twitter critics, one assumes?
Loren Kramar, Hope Is A Dangerous Thing For A Woman Like Me To Have – But I Have It
A gorgeous project, this: LA-based singer-songwriter Loren Kramar has channelled earlier taunts about being in touch with his feminine side into a collection of Lana Del Rey covers, called Living Legend. Hope Is A Dangerous Woman… from Del Rey's 2019 masterpiece Norman F---ing Rockwell! is first up.
Sugababes, Jungle
Noughties girl-group icons Sugababes have had quite the few years: sold-out tours, so much demand for last year's Glastonbury set they literally shut down the West Holts stage. Now the trio return with an infectious, garage-influenced banger just begging to be blasted at summer parties.
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