For more than 20 years, Baxter Dury has stood for a laconic, ironically primed game of British pop music that combines speech singing, retro groove and urban miniatures. With his last album I Thought I was Better than you (2023), the son of punk icon Ian Dury provided a smart portrait of male vanities that was musically amazingly abundant. Allbarone, named after the (well) of the same name British bar chain, now dispenses with its dazzling lounge surgery and instead looks with keyboard patterns and rough beats towards disco and nu wave.
Recommendations of the editorial team
This is mainly due to the man at the mixer: Paul Epworth, known as a hit whisperer for stars such as Adele or Florence + The Machine, made this completely new musical robe. What has remained the same is the way his vocals thrown out his vocals, and even if the opening title track already makes it clear how well this new combination works, the highlights later follow.
Once there is the “The Other Me” creeping around a bass, which, as it is again negotiating identities, is most reminiscent of the previous album in the form and content. And then there is “Return of the Sharp Heads”, according to the artist himself a moral picture of the currently badly disreputable London artist’s district SHOREDITCH. The reviewer cannot judge how accurately the track is, but it sounds: He sounds adequately greasy for a hipster district typology.
This review first appeared in the MusikExpress 10/2025.