Sean Taylor has plenty to say and he doesn’t mince his words. It’s a musical manifesto for the moment – an ironic tribute to the times, and what we can only hope will be a hiccup in history (doubt it somehow).
‘Little Donny Returns’ is wry and ironic, it begins ‘Tiny hands, tangerine skin; evil on the outside and cruel within…’ Sean has the measure of the man. It’s hard not to feel despondent, even if this is an artist that has captured the signs of the times, reflecting the fears of us all. He takes on ‘Artificial Intelligence’ and casts a cold eye on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’. Where is the place for originality, innovation and the unique creativity when it’s all cardboard cut-out mentality.
For example, ‘Artificial Intelligence’ opens with “This is the age that time forgot/Botox, Insta and TikTok/Programme us how to look/Makes us vote for a racist crook.” All the scary monsters and super creeps of the moment (you know who they are) get a mention in ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ – even Tommy Robinson’s little thugs.
Speaking about the album, sean Taylor says:
“The world feels violent, scary and unhinged. This is mirrored by a music industry that is increasingly corporate, conservative and desperate. Venues and festival are struggling like never before. Inside the music, I bear witness to the unfolding apocalypse of climate change, escalating wars and the dominance of the far right. This is a dangerous time to be alive. First Light arrives as eleven songs that capture how I see the world.”
Sometimes an artist articulates our thoughts, captures the mood and finds the words to speak for a sane demographic. Sean Taylor gets that moment in time with ‘First Light’. ‘Seeds’ is a reference to the paraphrased quote from Dinos Christianopoulos, and also more recently associated with the late Sinead O’Connor:
“When they buried us, they didn’t now we were seeds.”
It gets into the bones and sinews of every hateful dehumanisation ongoing – genocide, executions, ethnic cleansing, and massacres of the twenty first century.
There’s space for a little long song in ‘Everything’, before reminding us that ‘Poverty’ is all around – “A Poundland’s worth of dreams” followed by a wonderful cover of ‘All Around The Watchtower’ – loved this interpretation.
Beginning and ending with poetry – a reminder that despite it all – there is still beauty in the world, if we remember to look for it – in ‘Murmurations’ or at ‘First Light’.