Tydeman, Tydeman and Co return, with the long-awaited follow-up to Mildly Entertaining, their stunning 2022 debut. Happy Days, indeed!
Release Date: Out now
Label: Self Release
Formats: CD
It’s been like Christmas! Every day, since 22nd May – the release date of Happy Days!, the new EP from At The Barrier favourites, Barbara – I’ve been stood behind the front door, waiting for the postman to drop my copy of the CD onto my doormat. And now, it’s here at last!
Happy Days! is another 6-track mini-album and it’s the long-awaited follow-up to Mildly Entertaining, the band’s 2022 debut collection that first brought Barbara to our attention and introduced the phrase ‘fop-pop’ into our vocabulary. To recap, just in case you’ve been spending the past couple of years in a music-free and less joyful place that has been our privilege to inhabit: Barbara are a Brighton-based band, fronted by brothers John and Henry Tydeman – John’s the lead vocalist and Henry adds backing vocals and plays keyboards. That’s not he whole story, of course; the five-piece lineup is completed by Dean Llewellyn on guitar, Jack Hosgood on bass and Lawrie Miller on drums and, on Happy Days! they’re also ably supplemented by Charlotte Glasson on sax and flute and Lizzie Gregory on trombone.
Barbara’s music is deliciously quirky and takes in influences (whether consciously or not) from the likes of The Beach Boys, 10cc, The Lemon Twigs, The Divine Comedy, Sparks and Stackridge to come up with an end-product that is, definitively, their own. Lyrically, their songs cover subject matter as diverse as communications, social media, holidays, politics and Vaudeville, but always from an oblique and unexpected angle that makes their songs eminently re-listenable. In the past year alone, Barbara have enjoyed high-profile tours with Haircut 100 and Paul Weller, gaining deserved plaudits wherever they’ve appeared and it can’t be too long before the listening public in general sits up and realizes what a stupendous band there is, right here in their midst.
Five of the six tracks that make up Happy Days! have been with us in digital format for quite some time now and regular Barbara-watchers (and the many new converts to the Barbara cause, picked up during those tours) will be familiar with at least some of the material collected here, as most of the songs are featured regularly in the band’s live shows. Happy Days! presents Barbara’s most recent material in physical form for the first time – and its appearance is so very welcome!
It’s recent single, Mein Fräulein that gets Happy Days! off to a rousing start. Perhaps the most adventurous, sophisticated and lovingly eccentric song that Barbara have produced so far, Mein Fräulein is Barbara at the top of their game. The band are tight and punchy and John’s Lol Creme-sounding vocal might just be the best he’s ever delivered. The song oozes 1930s ambience and imagery, with lyrics that reference Gauloises cigarettes, lederhosen and cottages on the Côte D’Azur as they recount the story of our fräulein flapper-girl.
Released as long ago as March 2023, Enduring Love now feels like a familiar old friend. Charlotte and Lizzie are both around to add their rich tones to the sound on this tribute to the late, great Bert Bacharach – another of John’s and Henry’s influences. The song was inspired by Ian McEwan’s 1997 novel of the same name, particularly the dramatic hot-air balloon incident scene that opens the movie of the novel. Dean’s guitar is as excellent as ever, as the song bounces along in the familiar Barbara way.
Described as: “A bit of satire aimed at the kind of politician or media personality who pretends to be standing up for ordinary people but who is, in fact, completely self-obsessed and completely cynical in all they say and do,” Pretty Straight Guy is a fantastic slice of disco pop, embellished by guitar lines form Dean that sound more like Brian May that Brian May does himself. It’s one of my top picks from the Brabara repertoire and lines like: “There’s a shady-looking fella on the television, mocking as a mocking bird, and there’s a certain type of citizen who pities him and hangs on his every word” and “He won’t use no pseudonym; there’s nothing you can think of will embarrass him” carry particular resonance at the moment, bombarded as we are by lies and rhetoric from many angles of the political spectrum.
Waiting Outside Alone is another old friend that we’re pleased to welcome onto the CD format and it’s probably the most familiar song on the EP – it’s the regular opening number to Barbara’s live shows. It’s a Beatle-ish sounding track, with more of Dean’s best Brian May guitar highlights and lyrics that deal with exclusion – particularly of people from the younger generations – from decisions that will impact them most.
When it was released as single, back in November of last year, Master Narrative seemed to lift Barbara’s music to a level even higher than the one they already occupied. When I first heard the song, I was struck by the way that so many of the band’s major influences – particularly the vocal inflections of Freddie Mercury and Russell Mael and the lyrical wordplay of Neil Hannon and 10cc – coalesced, and that’s a feature that continues to register. The lyrics take a satirical swipe at an un-named (but it’s not difficult to find someone who fits the bill…) politician who happens to be a compulsive liar and whose principles are as shallow as his own false smile: “We hate him like nobody else does; we love him – all he needs is a Master Narrative.”
All of which brings us to the EP’s finale and to the track that will be least familiar to Barbarettes. Grandad hasn’t been previously released, although it’s becoming a staple of Barbara’s live repertoire, when it’s given a visual leg-up by the false beards and flat caps that the band members don for the song’s duration. It’s another song with 1930s jazzy feel, as John’s delectable vocal is helped along by some stunning harmonies from the rest of the band. Again, there’s an aura of 10cc around, and Dean’s Hawaiian-flavoured guitar licks are wonderful. The lyrics are both hilarious and bittersweet and the Tydeman brothers demonstrate a remarkable understanding of life across the generational gulf with lines like: “Why do you still smoke Grandad? Haven’t you heard of the dangers involved?” “Just listen to this, grandson, stop taking the piss, grandson: Mine is the true generation, and all of your fancy-Dan ideas are causing such frustration,” and “I guess we depend on the pensioners, don’t we? Especially the cruel, the most bitter and loneliest.”
Happy Days! is a splendid EP. It collects a set of songs from a band that seem to get better and better every time they commit anything to tape. It also leaves the listener hungry for more Barbara product. The sky, it seems, is the limit for Brabara.
Watch the Tydeman brothers, John and Henry, run through Grandad, the EP’s newest song, here:
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Categories: EP Review
