Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The art of satire is one that must be preserved at all costs, to those that seek its obliteration we must always be on guard against, the alleged well-meaning hides a darker, nastier, almost totalitarian streak. If this is left unchecked by the ability to observe and have the arsenal of absolute wit to dismantle the pompous and the arrogant it will become a bleak and despotic world, in which humour of any type, if not banned, will be vacuous, boring and will be used to oppress by being aimed at the wrong people, the poor and the undervalued in our society.

Celebrating the outsider, the recluse and the contemporary is a nation’s way of seeing the aloof and high and mighty being taken down a peg or two, it is the study of humour in which satire excels and across time has been used by many to get the point across to perfection, that society is skewed, that the wrong people have their hand on the tiller. It is no wonder that satire in Britain is almost a competitive sport, a melancholic brilliance that harnesses the very best of our qualities to laugh at ourselves and not take ourselves seriously. If only we had a way to use it to make other countries realise we are not as awful as they believe we are.

Terence Blacker is no stranger to this land of the ready wit and observational lampoon, and his superbly recorded album Enough About Me carries on that tradition that he has built up and cultivated the contemplative, introspective mood and set the music out without a leash, to enjoy the freedom we all should seek.

Following on from the albums Lovely Little Games and Sometimes Your Face Don’t Fit, Terence Blacker understands the need for satire more than ever, even if it is in the sombre comic, the reclusive regretful or the willingly direct, and what it means to the way we view ourselves, the pompous conscious bubble pricked and the insufferably stupid sent packing.

In songs such as the opener I Can’t Call my Baby, ‘Baby’, First World Blues (The Bigot’s Song), the excellent Marriage Song, The Blues of ‘Blind Boy’ Waddington-Bruce and Still Searching For That Heart Of Gold, Mr. Blacker’s spirit is indomitable, precise and with compassion, a rare delicacy to be able to combine expert satire with the longing of humanity.

A delight in every way, Enough About Me proves you can’t have enough of a good thing.

Terence Blacker releases Enough About Me via Talking Cat Recordings on August 10^th.

Ian D. Hall