Brinsley Schwarz – Shouting At The Moon: Album Review

By John Barlass on 2nd December 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

The man who gave his name to a band gathers Steely Dan, Van Morrison and classic seventies funk, adds a sprinkling of 2020s social awareness, and delivers nine well-rounded, expertly-performed songs. Shouting At The Moon, the third solo album from Brinsley Schwarz, is a triumph.

Release Date: 14th November 2025

Label: Fretsore Records

Format: CD / Vinyl / Digital

THE MAN. NOT THE BAND...

The Press Release to Shouting At The Moon, the new album from Brinsley Schwarz, is quick to remind us: Shouting At The Moon is an album by the man, not by the band. Indeed, Brinsley Schwarz, the band – 70s Pub Rock icons, no less – to whom our man gave his name, ceased to operate in 1974, after releasing six not-as-successful-as-they-deserved-to-be albums. But Brinsley, the man, continued his mission.

It was a mission that included stints within the ranks of Ducks Deluxe and Graham Parker and the Rumour, as well as a spell as a professional luthier, a career that Brinsley Schwarz chose to pursue after retiring from music in 1989. Retirement wasn’t for Brinsley, though, and he returned to the stage in 2010, resuming his roles in The Rumour and, later, in Ducks Deluxe.

SOLO ALBUM #3

A chance encounter with Steely Dan’s Y2K ‘comeback’ album, Two Against Nature, changed the game once again when it inspired Brinsley Schwarz to pick up guitar and his biro and start writing songs again. The result of this renewed direction was Brinsley’s 2016 solo debut album, Unexpected. A second solo album, Tangled, followed during the COVID-blighted year of 2021 and now, four years on, along comes album #3. And Shouting At the Moon has been worth the wait.

Brinsley has taken the time available to assemble nine well-rounded, expertly-performed and sumptuously-produced songs. They’re packed with references to the likes of Steely Dan and Van Morrison and oozing the influence of mid-70s funk – a genre, remember, that Brinsley Scvhwarz, the band, were never hesitant in exploiting…

A LONG GESTATION

As Brinsley, explains, the songs that have made the cut for Shouting At The Moon, came about over a long period: “I wrote The Chance, Nothing Is What It Seems and What In The World sometime between the late 1990s and early 2005. Hard To Change and It’s Been A Long Year were written during 2024 and 2025 and were recorded during that time. So, you can see a big spread in time of writing and recording; some songs were recorded and were intended for my first solo album, but we had a surplus of recorded tracks and so we could pick tracks based on how the songs seemed to gel together as an entity, as an album.”

For Shouting At The Moon, Brinsley has enlisted the support of producer, engineer, keyboard player and fellow Graham Parker acolyte, James Hallawell and that’s been an inspired decision. James’s influence pervades the album – his own aural contributions are stupendous and the choice and balance of instrumentation is precise and thoroughly satisfying.

SMOOTH SOPHISTICATION

Brinsley’s solid basslines set the pace on opening track Every Day, and the highlights are provided by Simon Taylor’s alto and tenor saxophones. Brinsley’s voice is smoky, well-worn and perfectly suited to the song’s she’s-gone-and-left-me lyrics. Is it soul? Is it country? In truth, it’s a bit of both.

Brinsley tops his rich bass with a dollop of clean, funky guitar for What In The World, an early album highlight. It’s lush, it’s bluesy, it’s soulful, it’s satisfying and it’s rounded off by an irresistible Fender Rhodes solo from James. And James switches to Hammond organ, with devastating effect, for Falling Over Backwards, a delicious slice of sultry white soul. Brinsley’s voice is admirably constrained, at least until he realizes that he’s been gazumped in his lover’s affections, when a an angrier tone creeps in. And the smooth sophistication of the song is completed by a wonderful tenor sax solo from Simon.

ACOUSTIC MOODS

With lyrics like: “There’s a big storm coming, nothing’ll be the same,” Brinsley predicts a rocky time ahead in Nothing Is What It Seems. And, appropriately, Brinsley’s vocals are grittier than ever as he sings them. Swirls of organ introduce a solid, earthy rhythm, all topped off by Brinsley’s wha-wha guitar licks.

The album’s sole cover version is an excellent interpretation of Graham Parker’s Watch The Moon Come Down. The song first appeared on Parker’s 1997 album, Stick To Me (an album upon which Brinsley Schwarz appeared) and it’s another highlight of Shouting At The Moon. Strummed acoustic guitars provide a folky backing which builds pleasantly as James’s loping bass and sparkly Hammond organ join the mix, and Brinsley’s voice takes on a lighter, softer tone.

The acoustic mood is retained for Maybe One Day, a song in which Brinsley provides some tasteful harmonies to his own vocals, before Simon shatters the peaceful mood with a stirring, soaring sax solo. Then, it’s back to funk for The Chance, one of Brinsley’s earlier songs, specially resurrected for Shouting At The Moon. It’s sharp and polished, with James chipping in some nice piano lines and Brinsley hitting the spot with a couple of excellent guitar solos.

ELECTRIFYING FUNK – AND SOME WISE WORDS

Subtitled About Things Not Likely to Ever Happen, the electrifying Hard to Change is, possibly, my favourite track. It’s another wedge of solid funk, with Brinsley’s bass locked into Jeremy Stacy’s drums and James’s Hammond’s sleazy, shuffling melody recalling the very best of 70s jazz funk.

And, to round off an excellent album, Brinsley explores the subject of climate change with It’s Been a Long Year, the album’s elegiac, melodic closing track. “We’ve got to stop what we’re doing, we’ve got to stop now,” warns Brinsley. He’s right, of course, but the world seems to have little motivation to heed his words. And that’s all the more reason for him to keep repeating them.

Listen to Watch The Moon Come Down, Brinsley’s cover of the Graham Parker song, below: