The Duckworth Lewis Method - The Greatest Cricket Album Ever Album Review

Review of The Duckworth Lewis Method's album The Greatest Cricket Album Ever.

I don't like Cricket-ah, oh no! I love it! Well I don't actually, but I have always liked Neil Hannon's The Divine Comedy. And a little bit of research revealed that the DL method was devised by two English statisticians, Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis and is used to calculate the target score for the team batting second in a one-day cricket interrupted by weather or other circumstance. It is thought to be a fair method of setting a target score, but it predicts what would have happened had the game come to its natural conclusion.

Ah.. much clearer now. Anyway, it is also a project by the Pugwash's Thomas Walsh (Duckworth) and Hannon (Lewis) and they release an album on 6th July all about cricket. So, does it matter if you don't like cricket? No, not at all this is a corker, get it. corker of an album (that's a cricket ball isn't it?).

The first track to the crease is 'Age of Revolution' (the first single to be released on 28th June) which is a stomping reggae track with some funky bass and 1920's jazz trumpet fills, and the double entendre of 'Sweet Spot' is another stomper with some heavy seventies glam rock.

Another track to bring up the batting average is the charming 'Jiggery Pokery', a track which suits Hannon's style down to the wicket. A story telling song in the theatrical musical style with a bouncy comedy chorus - 'It was jiggery pokery, trickery, chokery how did he open me up / Robbery, muggery, Aussie skulduggery, out for a buggering duck'.

The following track 'Mason On The Boundary' would not go a miss on the end of a sitcom, you will know what I mean when you hear it. Other standout tracks of the album include 'Meeting Mr Miandad', the mellow 'The Nightwatchman' with its excellent bass guitar work and 'Test Match Special'

So in summary, I don't like cricket but I now love music about cricket, the album of the summer.

Rating: 9 for 10 not out

Pablo Roffey