IT'S THE SAME WHEREVER YOU GO

Now seems like a good time to say Peace and Love...

The overall spirit of the album is indicated by the bantamweight pug on the cover, posing bareknuckled and slightly hunched in front of a dirty gym wall, with PEACE and LOVE tattooed across his fingers.

For what it’s worth, I call him Tommy.

There is plenty of fine non-Shane material here. Gridlock rollicks. Misty Morning, Albert Bridge brings the strings. Blue Heaven choogles well enough to have earned some medium rotation at the local alt-rock station back in ’89. Lorelai longs. Gartloney Rats spins until it’s dizzy.

So what did Shane bring to the proceedings? Well, White City showed he still had the pith and vinegar, and trumped Townsend’s concept album with a single line: “And it’s just another bloody rainy day.”

Cotton Fields is autopilot stuff, notable mostly for revisiting the electroshock of Shane’s youth and namedropping producer Steve Lillywhite. Down All the Days is almost... there..., but not quite. USA has some epic percussion rattling all over the place, and some nice imagery doing about the same. Boat Train saddens me.

And London You’re a Lady leaves us with Shane’s last great piece of poetry: “While Chinamen played cards and draughts/And knocked back Mickey Finns”…