Miles Hunt – The Custodian (Good Deeds Records)

Miles Hunt’s new solo album came into being as a result of performing with one of his heroes, Tom Robinson. During the course of a conversation, Robinson put across the viewpoint that all the songs that Hunt has now written belong to his audience; that his job (as with any other songwriter) is to see that the songs are treated and performed with respect. It’s an interesting idea, and one that it’s easy to be sympathetic to.

So The Custodian is a double album of thirty songs written over the past forty years. It begins with the very first song that he wrote, as a thirteen year old ‘Speakeasy’ and concludes, appropriately with a new song, ‘Custodian.’ Comparisons with this collection could be drawn with the three Acoustic Classics albums that Richard Thompson (another songwriter Hunt admires) has released this decade. It’s simply Hunt singing and accompanying himself with an acoustic guitar. In a similar way to the Thompson albums, one of the most impressive things is just how easy to listen to it as an entire album. It is testament to Hunt’s tremendous skill as both a songwriter and performer just how well it all flows together. In lesser hands, this might be an album just to dip in and out of, but not here.

Not surprisingly, much of the material comes from Hunt’s regular job as singer of the Wonder Stuff, although there are also songs from his solo albums, and Vent 414 (the band Hunt formed after the Wonder Stuff split for six years in 1994). Given that the instrumentation of these songs gave them a particular group sound, in less skilful hands this could have felt half-arsed. But, this approach shines a new light on them. Perhaps the shining light in the whole collection is ‘On The Ropes.’ A top 10 hit from 1993, and the first single from the Stuffies’ fourth album, Construction For The Modern Idiot, it still contains the emotion that the original recording (still) has, but this version shows just how well the song is put together. Not for the first time, the inclusion of songs like ‘Room 512, All The News That’s Fit To Print’ show just how good the b-sides often were, too.

Whilst the second disc may contain songs that aren’t as well known, there are still so many gems within. ‘The Custodian’ is an excellent addition to his songwriting catalogue, and as last year’s album with his partner Erica Nockells, We Came Here To Work, he’s still touched with a particular gift. That album is represented here with ‘The Sweetest Of Bitterest Ends.’

This album succeeds on so many levels, but in essence, it is an album that stands on its own terms, and highlights just how brilliant a songwriter Miles Hunt is. Respect is due.

****

The Custodian is released on October 5 on Good Deeds Records

We Came Here To Work is Hunt and Nockalls’ third album together. The frontman of The Wonder Stuff and his partner, Stuffies violinist Nockalls have previously released two studio albums together, 2007’s Not An Exit and 2009’s Catching More Than We Miss. In the press release accompanying the new album, Hunt explains that “The music that The Wonder Stuff make is for nights out with your friends, what Erica and I have hopefully done with ‘We Came Here To Work’ is make music for nights spent at home in more genteel company.”

Take it from me, Messrs Hunt and Nockalls have certainly succeeded. The album opens with the gorgeous and wistful reflection on getting older that is ‘When The Currency Was Youth.’ It sets the tone for the album with Hunt’s lyricism mixing with Nockalls’ harmonies and string arrangements. ‘When the currency was youth/our pockets were so much deeper‘, he reflects. True, dat. You can trace a direct line between a song like this and earlier Wonder Stuff songs like ‘Caught In My Shadow’ and ‘Sleep Alone.’

This is very much an album built on a partnership; Nockalls’ arrangements aren’t just a backing for Hunt’s songs – they’re something special in and of themselves. The solo on ‘Waste Some Time With Me’ in itself is enough to make your heart flutter. Sure The Wonder Stuff may be best remembered for ‘The Size Of A Cow’ – but this album reminds us just how strong a singer-songwriter Miles Hunt really is. Often acerbic, but frequently able to stop you in your tracks with a single couplet. Joined together, it’s clear that this is not simply a stopgap or side project; rather it’s two very talented musicians producing an album that is the sum of both their parts and that they are worthy as an act in and of themselves.

Other highlights of the album include the stark ‘If I Were You’ which lambasts how a partner left a relationship, ‘Waste Some Time With Me’ and ‘A Matter Of Circumstance.’ Sometimes, lesser singer-songwriter records simply fade into the background, and repeated listens show up the serious shortcomings of the material therein. What listeners get with this album is a partnership which has gifted the world a strong collection of songs that in delivery provide a joy to listen to, and successive listening reveals the deeper strands making up the work.

A night at home in genteel company with this album seems like a fantastic way to spend an evening as autumn approaches!

We Came Here To Work is released on 8th September through Good Deeds Records.