Richard Dawson has a new album on the way, titled End Of The Middle.
Comprised of nine tracks, the record is partly inspired by the artist’s love of the films of Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu, and its stories focus around a family unit. “It zooms in quite close-up to try and explore a typical middle class English family home,” Dawson said in a statement. “We’re listening to the stories of people from three or four generations of perhaps the same family. But really, it’s about how we break certain cycles. I think the family is a useful metaphor to examine how things are passed on generationally.”
He continued: “I wanted this album to be small-scale and very domestic. To be stripped back, reconnect with the basics and let everything speak for itself – to be really stark and naked by just putting the words and melodies out there.”
To mark the album’s announcement, he’s shared a video for lead single ‘Polytunnel’, which you can watch below. The track tells the story of a gardener who is busying themselves with growing vegetables while dealing with illness.
“I think I know what’s happening in the song, but hopefully that’ll be different for each person listening,” Dawson said of ‘Polytunnel’. “I like that the line, ‘Out the gate and down the lane’, could mean going down the allotment, or it could mean going somewhere else. Tunnel is obviously a very loaded word. There’s possibly a lot of drama happening outside of the lines of the song… Or not. It might just be a song about an allotment.”
Domino will release End Of The Middle on February 14, 2024.
