Ray Davies - Working Man’s Cafe

A grim overview of the 21st Century

It may seem fitting that the great chronicler of all things English launched his new solo album as a giveaway with such a supposedly traditional organ as The Sunday Times, but Working Man’s Cafe is hardly a stout-hearted hymn extolling the virtues of John Bull. Davies focuses on what he sees as the slow decay of his homeland, suggesting in interviews that the record could be read as a book beginning with Tony Blair’s election. The title track takes the form of a mobile phone conversation, the protagonist struggling to find somewhere to meet a friend in a familiar town made unrecognisable after a malls-and-mezzanines makeover (“everywhere I go it looks and feels like America”). Even more pointed is Vietnam Cowboy’s snapshots of empty factories in the UK and US, while business booms thanks to cheap labour in the East. Musically, there’s little to differentiate this from most of Davies’ output over the last 20 or so years (although there’s a refreshing absence of brother Dave’s metal-ish guitar riffs), but the lyrical mood is sombre. The closing Real World, one of two bonus non-freebie tracks written shortly after Davies was shot in New Orleans, concludes that America is hardly in better shape than his homeland.

V2 | VVR 1048572

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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