‘Charge’ is the fourth full-length studio album from Brighton based vocalist, songwriter and musical all-rounder David Ford. It’s a real slow burner of a record seeing Ford slip seemlessly from broken hearted defeat to defiant righteous anger. Some tracks guitar based, others feature the delicate piano runs we’ve grown to associate with the live shows and while there’s obviously none of the mid song wit and a little less loop station here, this is a fairly authentic studio session giving you a real feel of being down the front and absorbed in it all.
Kicking off with harmonica and handclaps we’re straight into the folk pop that has become something of a signature. ‘Pour a Little Poison’ drops Americana references from beginning to end but is a quintessentially British track with the ever self-deprecating Ford referring to himself as a “whiny little English boy singing the blues”. Tales of woe from touring the states are scattered throughout the entire record. ‘Philadelphia Boy’ talks of the welcome received in the USA for a fragile, broken British man seemingly lost somewhere on the way.
‘Charge’ in its entirety is a neat microcosm of Ford’s career to date, the women, the wine, the whirlwind tours and the adoration of his many fans across the globe all come to the fore while the man himself remains distinctly under the radar bereft of mainstream interest. Standout track and album closer ‘Every Time’ addresses this and as Ford pontificates over a rousing almost six minutes of crescendo building reminiscent of the old ‘State of the Union’ single you get the feeling that there’s still a real fire burning in the belly and while that remains we’ll continue to be treated to tours and records like this one.