'The Death of Lucy' is great fun – start to finish – tongue in cheek, often in the style of musical theatre, with cheeky but courageous rhymes, this could easily translate in to a stage show.
Let me explain. The protagonist is the ubiquitous Lucy – a metaphor perhaps for every doomed and failed relationship along the way. Now, its high time for this imaginary friend, or nemesis, to stop living rent free in the musician’s mind, and effectively just do one – disappear, drop off, die.
This is the third LP for Danny Horm & the Shared Myths. I’m not familiar with the back catalogue but if I was, I’d now that this fictitious muse, Lucy is an up front feature. In fact, Danny Horn went so far as to publish a book of poetry in her honour – called ‘Lucy and the Others.’
The metaphor of Lucy is used to tell this story through song of a toxic love affair, gone wrong. This is to be Lucy’s swan song, her last outing, with this album intended to lay her to rest, bury, sink and move on from this ghostly sprite.
Jaunty, memorable tunes that swing and stomp along, to more reflective, introspective episodes, this could easily be worked into a musical, telling the tale of Lucy’s demise.
Characteristic of Danny Horn’s style, these songs are imbibed with his dark humour, acerbic wit, mercurial twists and uniquely twisted lyrics – and it’s fun, and at times, very funny, wry and waspish with a touch of cheeky chappie. Titles such as ‘South Korean Style Cauliflower Wings’, ‘Lorraine is Exhausted’, ‘Keep on Careening Karina’ – with girls’ names featuring strongly, to ‘Stolen Nights in Jericho’, ‘Radio Play’ and ‘Deep to my Eyes’ – there wasn’t one bum song. It’s something of a concept album and appealed to my sense of humour and love of musical humour – in fact, there’s even something specifically retrospective about it all – could easily be from the swinging sixties, with these colourful, tawdry, Bohemian characters and their squishy antics.
This dramatic approach is hardly surprising given that Danny Horn is in fact an actor, and has completed a stint playing Kinks frontman Ray Davies in the hit musical ‘Sunny Afternoon’ in Chicago. Although a trained actor, he is a multi-talented musician and writer, creating high energy, story driven theatricality to his performance style.
Joined in his endeavours by his band The Shared Myths, offering scorching violin, wild guitars, a beautiful earthy double bass and tight four piece harmonies, this comes highly recommended – for me, it’s a keeper for the car, set to become a sing-along-a-road-trip favourite.
Well worth a listen for the clever rhymes, cheeky twists and acerbic wit – all delivered at pace. In fact, there’s not a dull moment on the Death of Lucy RIP.