Bestowers of Versed Reverence,

Two years since the release of the monumental Wolves, Deaths and Entrances by My Latest Novel arrives into the public domain.

The ability to be inspired and build upon culturally significant works through music is the skill which My Latest Novel possess and are without parallel in exhibiting. The process relies upon first sourcing that seed that will blossom; others care for small potatoes, or Rockall.

All in All in All is All, the opening track, is the world in an envelope. Equating it with the poem, All All and All by Dylan Thomas might be a naïve move, for it is said to be inspired by some of the tales of Edgar Allan Poe. Dramatic but human and endearing, reminiscent of the classic, Pretty in a Panic, All in All in All is All grows into a huge all-instrument wave that crashes down and vanishes to leave a shore littered with the softened beauty of sea glass.

Dragonhide broods angrily, a sad violin line creeps along the underbelly of the song before taking on the eruption of threats, and just managing to survive the growing strength of its opponent in a battle with surprising outcome.

Lacklustre is a fluid composition based upon the story of L’inconnue de la Seine, an unidentified, young woman whose body was pulled from the Seine and whose face became iconic and used in the first aid mannequin, Rescue Annie.

After reading the press release, the image of Billy Pilgrim reading the work of Kilgore Trout and the flight of Captain John Yossarian seems to be catapulted into the foreground during I Declare a Ceasefire. Pilgrim digesting the shrewd visions of Trout inspire the thoughtful, helpless, slow opening, whereas the madness and the departure of Yossarian, the airman who vents his anger and shows his pain at being helplessly trapped in someone else’s war, may represent the loud chanting and uprising during the declaration of a change of heart.

The standout track is A Dear Green Place, a song that is clearly rooted in local experience, and bearing the name of a novel by Archie Hind. The streets are littered with those who have no means to express themselves meaningfully; an outsider casting an analytical eye over this may become in awe of small glints of human majesty but be crushed by the thoughtlessness of the wasters who inevitably dominate, the smart man looks outside for hope, to heroes and idols that those wasters will forever be oblivious to. The search is a lonesome, never-ending task carried out by like-minded individuals that are nightmarishly far apart. The saying goes, ‘If you can’t beat them, join them.’, but can that ever be acceptable? Does this just result in a even grander pile of small potatoes? The chorus of the year goes, unless ears are mistaken:

I don’t dream,
How can I ever dream?
When my nightmares are entrances, wholly enclosed?
Startled and angry,
Palms are cold.
He said.
She said.

Argument Against the Man and Man Against the Argument are ballast on Deaths and Entrances, as compositions and tunes, they’re good; they’d be fine for an Arcade Fire to parade as their masterpiece but here, they are surrounded by thought-provoking giants.

If The Accident Will is, of course, mentioned on page 2 of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and again, memories of Billy Pilgrim and Yossarian are summoned as a single guitar accompanies the broken memories of our composite protagonist, then the song goes through a phase of Shuttleworth-synths, before the marching percussion and trains of guitars herald the departure for peace.

Mark & Lard used to have a trail, read by Kylie, that went, ‘Mark & Lard, hopelessly devoted to you’. ‘Hopeless’ is such a strong word, it has to be used in the proper context, Mark & Lard’s plight at Radio 1 was blatant for those who heard. The grim opening to Hopelessly, Endlessly with sparse percussion, minimal guitars and mournful words and muted violin before bursting into a repetitive but energetic, struggle that is, indeed, best described by the song’s title and the final words of ‘my fate is sealed tonight’.

Wistfulness marks the simple linking lyrics in the piano-led intro to Re-appropriation of The Meme, the gradual introduction of each vocalist intensifies the emotion of the concept.

The final track, The Greatest Shakedown, is typical of last tracks on many albums, a bit of noise, a fanfare, some repetition. The initial words, ‘Let’s fleece a few old friends, we can bleed them, we can rip them off’ is a bit scary but not unfamiliar behaviour for many.

The key to album is as ever the brilliant compositions that have been expanded to include greater synthesiser parts since Wolves, which was made up of intelligent guitars, dramatic percussion, violin, keyboards with other bits and pieces to go along with the layered vocals. The artists who inspired Deaths & Entrances have been honoured in an accomplishment no literature critic or other recording artiste could ever emulate, pragmatically, constructively and beautifully.