The Zutons – The Big Decider: Review

 

 

 

The Big Decider justifies The Zutons’ return, and certainly doesn’t sully their legacy.

The return of The Zutons should be quite A Big Deal.

Twenty years ago, their fine debut album Who Killed…The Zutons? made a respectable impact, riding the crest (like many of their contemporaries) of the post-Libertines wave, when British guitar music was very in vogue, supported by some classic singles.

Two years later, follow-up album Tired Of Hanging Around (belatedly) made an even bigger cultural impact, with Valerie taking on a whole new life of its own after being covered by Amy Winehouse.

Third effort You Can Do Anything failed to consolidate their success in 2008 and, after being dropped by Sony, The Zutons quietly disbanded the following year.

Bassist Russell Pritchard joined Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds (where he remains), late recruit Paul Molloy went on to join The Coral while drummer Sean Payne worked with Miles Kane, among others.

What set the Liverpool group apart was saxophonist Abi Harding’s glee and lose-herself-in-the-music stage presence alongside songwriter Dave McCabe’s vocals; a gravelly, soulful timbre more in line with soul heroes than as part of psychedelic Scouse troubadours. So, it’s reassuring that the pair, along with Payne, continue as key components in this reformation.

Having fully reformed in 2018, playing some shows to celebrate the debut’s fifteenth anniversary, it’s been a cautious road to finally release new music, and The Zutons have taken no chances, enlisting Ian Broudie and Nile Rodgers(!) to share production duties.

Yet even so, they seem to have met a muted response. Perhaps they simply left it too late, and reformation fatigue has set in, with the likes of Hard-Fi and The Enemy (not peers, but contemporaries) having stolen all the oxygen.

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Unfortunately, The Big Decider is unlikely to help matters, even if there is some good work here. The cantering Creeping On The Dancefloor possesses an impressive, gnarly riff and a reassuringly passionate vocal from McCabe, while fellow single Pauline has a strutting groove, with sultry 1980’s keys and a splendid wig-out outro.

Harding comes into her own on the pastoral psyche of centrepiece Disappear which takes spacey, peak-era Pink Floyd and adds a closing narration by Rodgers about The Zutons travelling the stars while asking the universal question: Why? Elsewhere, the funky gallop of Water slinks along pleasantly enough but, sadly, fails to leave much of an impression.

And that’s the main issue; the songs fail to resonate. The demo of the title-track reportedly brought Broudie to tears, but the full version comes and goes, as does penultimate track Rise. On an album of nine songs, forgettable tracks become a problem.

It’s a horrible, hackneyed comparison, but the delicate In Your Arms sounds a little too close to The Coral for comfort, while Best Of Me (written by McCabe while in rehab) is heartfelt, conveying the sense of a journey well-travelled or the sound of sunrise after a dark night.

According to reports, the sense of purpose and joy that Harding, Payne and McCabe found working together (writing collaboratively) has made the reunion worth it, for them, and that’s heart-warming to hear.

For that reason, The Big Decider justifies their return and certainly doesn’t sully their legacy, but don’t expect it to embrace in the same way as other Zutons albums.