Album Review

David Ford – Songs For The Road

• 8th Nov 2007

Solo male artists – just what the music world needs right now. Mika, James Blunt and company have given a bad name to any fella who’s trying to make a living through guitar-based music, and I’m sure people like David Ford hate them for it.

As a rule, I’m not a fan of this acoustic blues stuff, as its often based on clichés of love and angst, and has a tendency to be a bit dreary. What I do like, however, is bitter people, and David Ford seems to me to be a little bitter. The album begins a bit weakly with strings and straining vocals, gets livelier with second track ‘Decimate’, but the anger and loathing really kicks in with ‘St Peter’, and by this point, I’m in. Mock religion, and I’m right there with you, so the line “everyone come together, making no kind of sense” endears me to Mr Ford than anything else ever could. Then have a go at Bush (“some fool with a shotgun in a house painted white”) and you’ve got me as a mate for life. Another stand out is ‘Nobody Tells Me What To Do’, which, as well as being one of those tunes that sticks in your head like a cocktail stick into a miniature sausage, seems to be a vengeful tale of hatred from a spurned lover – again, a theme that I admire.

Though I probably wouldn’t like this music if it was optimistic or heartwrenching, add a bit of cynicism and I’ve a whole new respect for David Ford. Sick of acoustic, loved up, angst-ridden bores? Then give this a go.