It was Sunday June 28th, 2024 and Baxter had just stopped from a rapturously received set on The Park Stage at Glastonbury festival. After towelling himself down, a familiar figure approached him backstage. It was Paul Epworth, the lauded producer / songwriter whose creations have draped themselves across the airwaves of the 21st Century more successfully than other Briton.
They agreed to meet back in Epworth’s North London Church Studios in late November, not long after Baxter had finished touring his last album. Their first day in the studio working on this new eighth solo Baxter Dury album was an eye-opener for Baxter, though, and not just because of the comfortable surroundings of The Church which has hosted the likes of Frank Ocean and Adele (“incredible place, all this glistening fruit and catered sushi, I felt like the bloke from Trading Places, stuffing it down my sleeves.”).
Together they dreamt up 'Allbarone’s nine-track tour-de-force, stripping everything away and building Baxter’s most melodically direct, futuristic collection in intense three-hour daily shifts throughout December and January.
“It’s kind of a character arc that goes through the whole thing, two personalities,” he explains. “It’s very critical of people, this album, whoever they are, maybe some bloke with a moustache and sockless loafers in Shoreditch or a fat old Chiswick gangster lording it up in a really comfortable middle class part of London”
“I don’t want to say it’s contemporary,” he summarises. “Because I sound like a cunt using that word. But it does sound really contemporary. It doesn’t sound like a Harrods hamper band made it. It doesn’t sound like a band made it all. Which is what I wanted most of all. It’s just something that’s brand new for me. It’s quite exciting, really.”
Which in Baxter Dury-speak is as good as proclaiming “I’m top of the world!”
They agreed to meet back in Epworth’s North London Church Studios in late November, not long after Baxter had finished touring his last album. Their first day in the studio working on this new eighth solo Baxter Dury album was an eye-opener for Baxter, though, and not just because of the comfortable surroundings of The Church which has hosted the likes of Frank Ocean and Adele (“incredible place, all this glistening fruit and catered sushi, I felt like the bloke from Trading Places, stuffing it down my sleeves.”).
Together they dreamt up 'Allbarone’s nine-track tour-de-force, stripping everything away and building Baxter’s most melodically direct, futuristic collection in intense three-hour daily shifts throughout December and January.
“It’s kind of a character arc that goes through the whole thing, two personalities,” he explains. “It’s very critical of people, this album, whoever they are, maybe some bloke with a moustache and sockless loafers in Shoreditch or a fat old Chiswick gangster lording it up in a really comfortable middle class part of London”
“I don’t want to say it’s contemporary,” he summarises. “Because I sound like a cunt using that word. But it does sound really contemporary. It doesn’t sound like a Harrods hamper band made it. It doesn’t sound like a band made it all. Which is what I wanted most of all. It’s just something that’s brand new for me. It’s quite exciting, really.”
Which in Baxter Dury-speak is as good as proclaiming “I’m top of the world!”
TRACK LISTING
1. Allbarone
2. Schadenfreude
3. Kubla Kahn
4. Alpha Dog
5. The Other Me
6. Hapsburg
7. Return Of The Sharp Heads
8. Mockingjay
9. Mr W4