‘The Party’s Over’ is the fifth long player released by Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra. As with previous albums, the music blends an exciting mix of influences from Americana to country, blues and jazz, all wrapped in their own unique style of Western Swing.
Featuring eleven originals all penned by Rob Heron (except ‘Trouble’, written by Paul Webber), the album is beautifully arranged and produced with wide ranging subject matter that can sometimes seem glib on the surface yet contains much deeper meaning within.
The light-hearted ‘Go Home (The Party’s Over)’ opens the album with a jaunty tale of weary realisation as the end of a long night approaches. The rock and roll brass fuelled ‘She Hypnotised Me’ takes a humorous look at the effects of falling in love.
There is a serious side to the music of The Tea Pad Orchestra as ‘A Call to a Mother’s Arms’ displays. Clearly written as an anti-war song, with its Americana Celtic fusion it could easily sit on an album of American Civil War songs, yet Heron’s lyrics ground the song within British culture. Another song that is also rooted within that culture is the campfire-esque tale, ‘Right to Roam’. Initially sounding like an ode to the countryside of Heron’s Tyneside home, it also raises the social and political question of landowners denying the public access to those lands.
‘The Party’s over’ is a master class in both song writing and musical composition. Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra have outdone themselves with beautiful arrangements, clever lyric and fantastic playing. Clearing proving that for the Tea Pad Orchestra, the party is only starting.
‘The Party’s Over’ can be purchased via the band’s Bigcartel site