The Duckworth Lewis Method
Many has been the day when I have found myself deep in thought, pondering on what it is my life has been missing. I have endeavoured to seek solace within the realms of psychedelic and prog rock and it was through this that I found the source of my discontent was concept album based.
I have all manner of concept albums, sonically detailing topics as diverse as deaf, dumb and blind pinball players, alien invasions from Mars, the life cycle of a lad named SF Sorrow, poetry competitions, creepy old tramps and the bucolic lifestyle (Jethro Tull can lay claim to the last three) but what I didn’t have was a concept album about cricket! What’s more, I didn’t have a concept album about cricket that nodded towards the late seventies ELO sound.
Until now, that is. All hail the Duckworth Lewis Method, an album that not only ticks all the above boxes but also goes a long way to restoring my faith in ‘modern’ music.
The Duckworth Lewis Method are a match made in heaven, marrying Jeff Lynne to Flanders and Swann and embarking on a cheeky affair with the eccentricity of Giles, Giles and Fripp before the icing on the wedding cake has had chance to dry. And the tongue remains firmly in the cheek throughout.
As quintessentially English as Brian Cant, Camberwick Green and punch-ups on pub carparks-
But wait! What’s this? The Duckworth Lewis Method isn’t the product of a clandestine liaison between Noel Coward and Terry Thomas but the work of two Irishmen (Shock, Horror!) They be Thomas Walsh of jaunty prog/popsters Pugwash and The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon. HFoS tips the trilby to both the aforementioned gents.
The twelve tracks on Duckworth Lewis Method stick firmly to the subject matter of cricket, from ‘The Coin Toss’ through to ‘The End of the Over’, playing on the absurdities of such a bizarre sport in an affectionate manner as the language of the game is employed to humorous effect. There are some genuine laugh out loud moments, the outrageously jaunty and wonderful ‘Jiggery Pokery’ being a particular joy, and the likes of ‘The Age of Revolution’, ‘Meeting Mr Miandad’ and the pastoral ‘Flatten the Hay’ all offering a quirky brand of progressive pop.
HFoS can’t recommend the Duckworth Lewis Method enough. It’s ELO, it’s funny, it’s English through and through (okay, maybe not 100% English), and it has a song that mentions both Merv Hughes and his bloody great handlebar moustache (Jiggery Pokery). And what’s more, it knocks anything else that’ll be released this year into the pavilion for an eye-blackening six.
To end on a groaning cliché/metaphor – you don’t need to know your Chinaman from your Googly to appreciate the Duckworth Lewis Method, what is the perfect pop package, dispatched with the gusto and sureness of a Shane Warne delivery.
Duckworth Lewis Method is released on Divine Comedy Records and available from Amazon.co.uk
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