Post Description

Folk, pagan. 


A collection of newfangled pagan hymns to coincide with the end of truth.

So, here we are again.  As November becomes December, we scan the horizon in anticipation of yet another collection of songs that tackle complicated subjects and distill those subjects into understandable morsels of wisdom – in other words, another new album from the inimitable Beans on Toast.  It’s become a tradition that, thankfully, shows no sign of fading.  Essex Troubadour, Jay McAllister – aka Beans On Toast – always releases a new album on his 1st December birthday and Wild Goose Chasers is his 2024 offering, his 17th album by our reckoning.

A DIFFERENT TACK
This year, Beans is taking a slightly different tack.  The philosophical observations, the disdain for those who assume power and the expressions of faith in family unity are all present and correct but, this time around, Beans presents his thoughts to a pared-back accompaniment of a single piano, played with grace and artistry by Matt Millership.  This time, too, there’s a single theme that pervades the album, as Beans On Toast explains: “[these songs represent] a collection of newfangled pagan hymns to coincide with the end of truth… [they are] about trading a modern society for a wilder, more feral existence.  Songs that dig deep into the meaning of life and our purpose on Earth.  They provide an exit strategy from a boring dystopia by gambling the flood for a fairy tale.  This might sound pompous, but such is life – and such is the wild goose chase.”

Sounds cryptic? 
Believe me, it all makes perfect sense, once you’ve listened to the album and reflected upon what Beans on Toast has to say.

It all starts off in such a deceptively comfortable way, too.  Opening track, Away With Words is an enchanting – and quite grand – short piano piece that, if I didn’t know any better, I’d suspect has been designed to lower the guard of the unsuspecting listener.  But Beans soon finds his stride as he advises – in that trusted Beans On Toast way: “Don’t forget to stare out to the star, don’t worry about the big things while the little things fall apart, don’t forget about the feeling of the ground beneath your toes and don’t forget the things that deep down inside you’ve always known,” as Faith in the Moon gets the album up and running.

SPIRIT OF OPTIMISM
There’s always a spirit of optimism hiding behind the expressions of despair and dystopia on a Beans on Toast album and that optimism surfaces with The Midas Touch – a bluesy rag with some outstanding piano parts from Matt – with the song’s “A hole in one, ten out of ten – give me half a chance and I’d do it all over again” refrain.  And it’s a double-barreled message that Beans delivers with the gentler Variety, as he advises us to learn from what’s going on around us, but to beware imposing our opinions on others – a piece of advice that Beans admits that he finds difficult to put into practice.

Token sloganeering and incompetence (remind you of anyone, do they?) form the target for Beans’ vitriol in the quickfire Boring Dystopia, before he searches for ways to exercise that feral existence he mentioned with the gloriously cryptic Oh, What a Life.  And that’s a theme he explores to even greater depth with the wistful, pastoral-sounding Myths & Legends’ the album’s lead single.  With lyrics like: “And we’ve lost all our shamen, all our tokens.  We lost any sense of hope that we had in our spokesman, so we listen to the wind, searching for purpose again,” Beans expresses his profound mistrust in the bland predictability and ineptitude of those who purport to lead, whilst suggesting that the reason for our existence can be found in nature.

THE ANSWERS POSE MORE QUESTIONS
But the answers aren’t just there for the taking, as Beans makes clear in the upbeat Why? – a song in which he ponders the mysteries that the world – and nature – hold and observes that the answers that nature provides “…only pose more questions.”  It’s the inevitability of change that comes under scrutiny in the bluesy, fast, furious The Glorious Fool.  In his lyrics, Beans acknowledges that change, when it occurs, isn’t always welcome but offers the wise advice to roll with the punches, avoid being burdened by visions of the future and to live each day as it comes.

Home and family are both massively important to Beans On Toast and he’s always ready to bask in the pleasures he derives from spending time in the company of his young daughter.  On his 2023 album, The Toothpaste and the Tube, those emotions were expressed most vividly in his song, The Dragicorn and, here, they emerge once again in the gentle The Bees Nest In My Pebbledash. 

CAUSE TO STOP AND THINK
But, perhaps, it’s with Before The Flood that Beans On Toast gives us the greatest cause to stop and think.  Dystopia is an ongoing theme in Beans’ work and is ever-present in the songs of Wild Goose Chasers.  Our collective failure to act on issues – whether these be climate change or the deterioration of school buildings – at the point when we can actually do something to prevent them, is encapsulated in lines like: “Nobody did anything till it was an emergency and the institutions started crumbling.  Actually, crumbling, not metaphorically.  The concrete they were built from had long gone past its warranty.”  But, this time, whilst Beans acknowledges the capacity of the human race to survive against the odds, he also hints that the chances of a fairytale ending to our tribulations shouldn’t be taken for granted.  “It’s a wild goose chase…”

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
The album ends as it began, with a soothing piano passage from Matt, and the listener is left with a great deal to take in.  Wild Goose Chasers is, perhaps, Beans on Toast’s most challenging album yet.  The songs are eminently listenable and structured in that engaging, enjoyable way that we’ve come to expect.  This time around, though, Beans on Toast raises as many questions as he answers – and they’re questions that certainly need to be asked.

Simple songs that deal with complicated subjects?  You can say that again!
Tracks:
1. Away with Words
2. Faith in the Moon
3. The Midas Touch
4. Variety
5. Boring Dystopia
6. Oh, What a Life
7. Myths & Legends
8. Why?
9. The Glorious Fool
10. The Bee’s Nest in My Pebbledash
11. Before the Flood
12. Fairy Tale Ending

Staat er compleet op, 10% pars mee gepost. Met zeer veel dank aan de originele poster. Laat af en toe eens weten wat je van het album vindt. Altijd leuk, de mening van anderen. Oh ja, MP3 doe ik niet aan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoENZhgd8YQ