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Dan Treacy
May 2010ZANI - The Last Real Bluesman in England.
Sometimes pop music surprises me. Who would have thought MGMT were big Television Personalities fans? I was shocked to see they had included A Song for Dan Treacy (on their new album Congratulations), and it made me smile to think of their fanbase searching Google to find out more about him. In the same way that Kurt Cobain introduced the world to Daniel Johnston, the song will have introduced many people to Treacy and hopefully persuade them to purchase the incredible Television Personalities back catalogue. A Song for Dan Treacy is an excellent example of a band jamming to promote, not destruct.There is a bona fide musical cult surrounding Treacy, and MGMT certified their love by getting him to play on their tribute, making this the first time he's been in the top ten. And he deserves to be there. Treacy's influence has hit far and wide: whether on the MGMT tribute or on the Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, Black Dice and, yes, Creation Records. Don't kid yourself in thinking his cult is meaningless. You almost certainly own a record heavily inspired by Treacy. He's a post-punk Burt Bacharach, and his influence is nothing short of incredible.
With his new album A Memory Is Better Than Nothing, Treacy has proven once more that he is the real poet laureate of working-class London. A Memory Is Better Than Nothing portrays the manifesto of living in the gutter but looking at the stars. Treacy demonstrates the beauty of the everyday with the track, Girl With the Hand Me Down Clothes. Like so many of his other songs, it tackles heartbreak (albeit with a fantastic string arrangement) but this track is also a celebration of everyday people. Treacy's eye for detail brings a painful Ken Loach-like honesty to the music.
Not all is dark, however. On the psychedelic People Think We're Strange, Treacy retains his reputation as pop's post-Syd Barrett jester. It provides relief from the heavier tracks and is excellent, deranged fun. Funny He Never Married builds on the Phil Spector-esque production of previous numbers, as Treacy sings in a breathless falsetto. A Memory Is Better Than Nothing could sound like a summer holiday in someone's emotional destruction, yet it doesn't.
Treacy doesn't drown his songs in self pity, instead he looks for the hope in a hopeless situation. On this new album, we find the cult songwriter doing what he does best – playing from the heart. Surely this makes Treacy the last real bluesman in England.
Reproduced by Kind Permission of Alan McGee and The Guardian
Original Article From The Guardian
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