The Wild Swans – The Coldest Winter For A Hundred Years (Occultation) 4 stars

After thirty years of hurt, Paul Simpson's reignited pop classicists
are on a mission. Featuring a supergroup of musical crusaders recruited
from the ranks of Echo and the Bunnymen, Spiritualised and Brian
Jonestown Massacre, this dozen-strong manifesto of epics sounds like a
one-man war on the sort of botched urban regeneration that has left
Simpson's beloved Liverpool so bereft of character and heart. Amid
jangling guitars and piano flourishes, Simpson's brooding baritone
train-spots a litany of desecrated pop cultural iconography, from
Turner's sunsets in pools of vomit to William Blake in Cash Converters.
Mrs Albion, as well as a lovely daughter, you have a brand new champion
to call your own.

The List, August 2011

ends

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