45/VINYLE COULEUR

Description

This is an album about Donald Trump – his dubious rise to power, his erratic behaviour in office, and the motley assortment of characters with whom he surrounded himself. It’s not really a protest album, though it is shot through with anger. It’s certainly not a joke, although some of it is very funny. It is a tragedy and it is a farce. The songs are sung from a variety of different perspectives, almost as if it were a Donald Trump funk musical. A policy advisor pitches Trump on a border wall. Another feels he can resign for the chaos to ensue. Rex Tillerson fumes at the dramatic decline in his status. Psychiatrists fret about the President’s mental stability. Hillary Clinton laments her loss. Trump himself boasts and prevaricates in his own unique and flamboyant style. ‘School of Language’ is David Brewis, who also makes music with his brother Peter as Field Music. This is the third album from ‘School of Language’, following 2008’s ‘Sea from Shore’ and 2014’s ‘Old Fears’. ‘45’ was written and recorded in just under two months during a break in the schedule at Field Music’s Sunderland studio. It was inspired by Bob Woodward’s ‘Fear’, articles in the Washington Post, The New Yorker and The New York Times, and Nate Silver’s ‘FiveThirtyEight’. It was also inspired by James Brown, Sly and The Family Stone, The Meters, Otis Redding and Free. David says of ‘45’: "For as long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated by US politics, and that fascination turned into an obsession in the run-up to the 2016 election. It really made me question if I had any understanding of people at all. Trump’s success seems to have laid bare every fault line in Western democracy – how profile beats policy, how corporate interests trump the needs of ordinary citizens and how ethics and the rule of law are at the mercy of partisanship. To be honest, I probably could have written twice as many songs – such is the richness of barely believable material surrounding the Trump administration. It’s like a King Lear peopled by the cast of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Here in the UK, I feel distant enough to turn my disgust into satire. I don’t think I could do the same thing with Brexit. That’s too close.”