Paul Heaton + Jacqui Abbott: N.K-Pop. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Observation, too few find their wit and their senses keen in the face of distractions, the constant barrage of noise masquerading as information, the titbit veiled as highly classified data, the softly whispered moment of gossip acting as evidence in trials and judgements, we have become deaf to the art of listening, blind to the reality of our existence and partnerships and struck dumb in an age of mass communication; this a truth of our moment on the spinning rock we call home, we see everything through closed eyes believing that our memory is untainted by others in our orbit.

You don’t put your life into music, like relationships, it is already there; you just must care deeply enough to listen to what is being played, that is the most important observation, is to know when to listen, and then understand what to write down in song.

The working partnership in music is perhaps the most combustible and the most blooming of all artistic endeavours, you have to listen to your other half with more intent, certainly the writer who beavers away agonisingly in the dead of night, the pencil and the bottle of scotch perched beside them, only has the one-way conversation to uphold, the group dynamic is bold but can become diluted with voices appearing out of the ether; and yet, as Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott have maintained across five albums, listening to each other is wisdom, it is sacrosanct, it is life.

The fifth recording by the duo, N.K-Pop, is yet further evidence of the delight and majesty of the couple’s musical partnership, the voice of the feminine/masculine divide conquered, a division bridged, and all the time the piercing observation catches the mind fully aware, like Alan Bennett, this is writing that is unafraid to lay down its arguments in a style that is disarming and yet throwing a hefty punch of reality.

Across tracks such as Too Much For One (Not Enough For Two), I Drove Her Away With My Tears, the prophetic I Ain’t Going Nowhere This Year, My Mother’s Womb, and New Fella, Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbot explore these moments within relationships, where listening has become an option, where hearing is at a loss, and how we arguably perceive them.

As with all their joint collaborations, N.K-Pop is a record of fertile belief, lyrically outstanding, musically unflawed, and timely. Pin back your ears, listen without prejudice, for N.K-Pop once more brings out the very best of two of the country’s finest working couples around.

Ian D. Hall