Chris T-T - Nine Green Songs Album Review

It seems like wherever you are in the world right now, if you look at the news you'll find something happening in politics to bring on a full scale rage - there's a lot of it about. Chris T-T is one of Britain's foremost political folk musicians and since 1999 has been firing off his razor sharp liberal left leaning observations. Nine Green Songs is his remarkable tenth album and the spiritual successor to 2005's protest heavy Nine Red Songs.

The album kicks off with the rowdy, rabble-rousing #WorstGovernmentEver, which is a pure slice of accessible, obvious indie rock. There's a pretty sweet Blur-esque mid-section and Chris T-T doing his best to make sure David Cameron is best remembered for alleged relations with a pig rather than anything he did in office.

Next up is Love Me, I'm A Liberal, a cheap but charming pot shot with a tremendous set of lyrics which really speak for themselves, such as this: 'I cried when I saw that dead kid on the beach, the TV remote must have been somewhere out of reach, but I knew it was important, updated my status, come and have a listen to my refugee playlist.' A true slice of genius. Cutting A Longbow, a largely spoken word piece also features some unsettling, dramatic words and is a difficult, but compelling listen.

Next up is Hallucinating, a great mid-paced melancholy rocker that Chris T-T peddles so well (see Elephant in the Room, This Gun Is Not A Gun), but after this, the album takes a nosedive in terms of quality. There's some nice bits of atmospheric piano noodling (This Is What Drowning Is Like) and a fun little skiffle shuffle (A Garden on the Motorway) but also some confusing tracks that don't really do anything such as the A Capella Anyone's Song and the casio-techno of Admit Nothing, both of which could have been left on the cutting room floor without too much argument.

All in all, Nine Green Songs starts promisingly but fails to hit the mark from start to finish. There's way too much filler here and the whole thing feels a bit rushed, possibly for the sake of getting out while we're all still in uproar about Brexit and Trump.