The video for Middle Class Guilt’s new single ‘Edinburgh’ is like a cross between a typical road works scene and a Roy Andersson film: frontman Joseph Morgan does all the work while the rest of the band stand broodingly with umbrellas. Edinburgh City Council are unlikely to use it for tourism purposes.
The band count The Fall, Television, and traditional Shetland music as influences. As revealed in my review of their debut album The Committee last year, Middle Class Guilt are purveyors of ‘folk drone’ and ‘rollicking juvenilia’. ‘Edinburgh’ is the lead single from their upcoming second album Their King of Comedy, out on Etna Records on 8th May.
“I know where your passport is! / It’s laughing on the streets of Edinburgh!” yelps Morgan. Not only that: “It’s laughing its head off!” The band are also inspired by the Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal. Not being familiar with his works, I assume that he also dabbled in bizarre declarations and non sequiturs. The other five members of Middle Class Guilt create an increasingly frantic angular backdrop that exacerbates a sense of paranoia despite all the knowing silliness. If he were still with us, Mark E Smith would probably say that ‘Edinburgh’ makes perfect sense. For fans of The Fall, there would surely be no greater compliment.
‘Edinburgh’ is out now via Bandcamp
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Review by Neil Laurenson
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