Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
If A Bird In The Hand is worth two in the bush, then in the labours of Beans on Toast it must hold an entire menagerie, a cornucopia of brightly feathered introspections and meanings that hold the attention of his listeners and fans with no exception.
A Bird In The Hand may be the tenth studio album released by the musician with one of the more oddly derived signature names around, but that doesn’t mean that the music has found a way to be anything other than luminous. A force of thoughts making their way to the surface and blazing gently away in a cauldron in the sight of other’s wayward and blinkered vision, a sense of humility grandly presented, a thought-provoking affair which sees the bird it has enticed down to feed from the human hand and one on which is always ready to let go, never holding tight, never keeping captive, never crushing the freedom in which the creature is by rights deserving of.
What we do in nature is reflected in our soul, and in the sound and lyrics created by Beans on Toast, that mirroring stands out, a crested wave of solitude and inclusion, of songs with drama and ease, all rolled together to make an album that perhaps will be seen, quite rightly, as one of the most seamless and creative pieces of work that the artist has produced.
The sense of the personal has never been far from the Folk singer’s perspective, a kindness inhabiting even the toughest of calls when writing songs regarding politics or the brutality of humanity, and yet in A Bird In The Hand the balance shown of ballads and erring on Punk sensibilities is incredible, it is a stand-out drama presented with compassion and clear direction of thought.
In songs such as Good Health + Happiness, the beautifully serene Magic, Here At Hamerton Hospital, 1980’s Sagittarius, the extraordinary Bamboo Toothbrush and Please Give Generously, Beans on Toast excels like never before, that bird in the hand proving to be a sentient creature in which to care for, to not those who detract from devouring, but instead offering to the world as a symbol of our relationship with a greater force, a timely portrayal of humanity and art as intact and precise virtue.
A compelling album full of security and sheer honest delight, there is nothing finer to breathe in and admire.
Beans On Toast releases A Bird In The Hand on December 1st.
Ian D. Hall