The 10th Studio Album in a 35 year career sees this Classic British Band finesse their ribald recipe of roots randomness into a carnival of colour, sound and surrealism. Recorded with producer Jim Knight at the old home studio of the legendary Kirsty MacColl in leafy Ealing, this collections of ballads, rants and shanties mixes folk and pop, rock and reel, rhythm and roll, blues and soul and gives it a damn good shaking. The Men They Couldn’t Hang have long mixed poignant political epics with potent frenzy, once being compared to a ‘riot in a fairground’. Those qualities are not only present but super charged in the melodic blizzards of ‘Pone’ and ‘Sirens’; knuckleduster vocals, jet powered harmonies and martial mandolins all present. Ballads like ‘Four Winds Blow’ and ‘Three Ships Sailing’ continue the knack for widescreen mythology, evocations of past and future, while ‘The Amazing Carrier Bag’ goes through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole with a Kinksian take on the surreal whimsy of Brexit and the punk rock autobiographical anthem ‘Right Time, Right Place, Right Song’ puts it all into perspective with Cheshire Cat peek into the secret of The Men They Couldn’t Hang enduring success and longevity. In short this new album finds the Peter Pan vitality of TMTCH fighting fit and full of vim. It sounds like a big party; a ceilidh on mescalin, a wild, weird and wandering voyage of discovery, gone over the borders and out to the sea. And still the band plays on.
The Men They Couldn’t Hang promote Cock A Hoop via a full National Tour in the Autumn.