Another dose of charming unpredictability from Liverpool producer/ composer/ multi-instrumentalist/ performer Fran Ashcroft.  Dixieland jazz, lo-fi doo-wop and Beatles and Bonzo-inspired imaginings sit comfortably together on Things To Make Do With.

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED…

It’s become something of an annual event, hasn’t it?  Whenever the calendar clicks over from one year to the next, it’s a nailed-on certainty that Liverpool producer/ composer/ multi-instrumentalist/ performer Fran Ashcroft will be preparing, or preparing to prepare, a new album.  It’s also a safe bet that he’ll release that album before the same calendar clicks over once again. 

Fran Ashcroft has released a new album every year, ever since his debut, A Tour of British Duckponds, announced its groundbreaking presence, back in 2023.  2024 brought us The Songs That Never Were – Fran’s AI-assisted duet with his 1970s self.  And last year, the run was continued with Box Harry Day, an album on which Fran upped the ante with his use of AI to generate a series of orchestral-themed suites. 

So, whilst the timing of Fran Ashcroft’s album releases might be predictable – dependable, even – the content of those albums is anything but.  The advice we always give to listeners unsleeving a Fran Ashcroft album for the first time is: Expect the Unexpected…

IT MIGHT BE CONTROVERSIAL...

That advice holds firm for Things to Make Do With.  Indeed, Fran compounds the mystery and anticipation for whatever he has for us this time by his introductory note: “My new release is a little different this time around and, in some quarters, might be considered controversial.  There won’t be any videos, there won’t be any singles and it won’t be on Spotty-fi [sic] or similar streaming services.  I have abandoned the Titanic as it were…”

And, when an artist like Fran Ashcroft ‘abandons the Titanic,’ you can bet that something titanic is about to go down.

Things to Make Do With is a singular album.  Generally and typically lo-fi in its production, it’s a unique and varied collection of songs.  Dixieland jazz, lounge jazz, doo-wop and late-60s quasi-psychedelia all sit comfortably together within its grooves.  Strains of The Beatles, The Bonzos – even Captain Beefheart and Johnny Cash – are detectable.  And they’re all used – effectively – as vehicles for Fran’s scathing, droll lyrics.

FRIED EGGS

Opening track The Singer or The Song is a case in point.  The warm organ sound that introduces the song recalls Procol Harum or Percy Sledge, but such comparisons are pushed to one side as Fran aims his bitter lyrics at the greedy liars who dominate our society.  “True believers are a gallery of fools and that’s the truth” he suggests, in a voice that’s half-singing, half speaking, before advising: “Don’t give up and say ‘it’s just no f_cking use..’”

Lo-fi doo-wop is the formula for That Girl in the Winter.  Fran uses his instrumentation sparingly and there’s a definite McCartney-the-Beatle flavour to the song’s “Baby won’t you take me home” coda.  And things stay low-key for the plaintive, intimate Higher Things.  Confidence and presence increase somewhat when Fran declares: “Now the drums are flying high” – a line which, in a burst of inspiration, he manages to rhyme with: “Your eggs are nearly fried.”  It’s aa song of two halves, and there’s lots of detail to pick out.  Like the “Don’t walk away, Renee” reference…

BEATLES? KINKS? BONZOS? BEEFHEART?

Fran’s delivery of Blue Over You sounds like The Beatles did on the occasions that they tried to recreate their younger selves.  It’s a sweet ballad, with a 1930s swing, tuneful vocals and some quite nifty guitar work in between the lines.  By way of contrast, fuzzy guitars and distorted vocals give a Kinks-meet-the-Bonzos feel to the excellent A Place in the Sun.  Fran’s lyrics: “You’ll be happy when you’ve got a new place in the sun.  Won’t you tell me where have all the good times gone?” hint at the prospect of peaceful retirement, but listen carefully…  This song is more than mere happy-go-lucky nostalgia.  Fran is taking a violent swipe at those he considers responsible for the passing of those ‘good times.’

Beefheartian guitars and muffled vocals are supported by a bluesy bass/drum rhythm for the startling Monsters.  A burst of 1930s Dixieland jazz is as surprising as it is delightfully incongruous, before Fran concludes that it’s we who create the monsters that make life difficult.

A FINAL CROAK

The lyrics are an essential element of any Fran Ashcroft recording.  “Truth, love and justice are in short supply – it’s enough to make a grown man cry,” he sings on the melodic, jazzy, Truth, Love and Justice, as he advocatess upping sticks and heading for Central America to make a new start.  And the couplet: “I lived too long in the land of the free, but it’s not as free it claims to be” that opens Dixieland Revisited is one of his best yet.  Fran’s vocals are way up front and backed by a solitary, unamplified guitar as he demolishes any shreds of the American Dream that might still be standing.  “Look away, Dixieland, look away” indeed.

And, if the variety that Fran has served up thus far isn’t enough to satisfy, then there’s still time to enjoy a Johnny Cash pastiche.  Fran’s lyrics to Key to Your Heart might be unfinished, but it’s great fun.  And, to conclude this mind-sweeper of an album, Fran has come the closest he’s ever been to a conventional pop song.  Albeit one that complies only to the Fran Ashcroft rule book.  This Old Thing is another song that recalls that Liverpool-psychedelic summer of 1967 – and it’s all rounded off with a lick of mellow guitar and a final croak from Fran.

FREE DOWNLOAD

In the event that you feel that there’s an intriguingly surreal element to all of this, then that impression will be cemented by the 20-page booklet that accompanies Things to Make Do With.  Don’t expect lyrics, a list of album credits or even a bunch of acknowledgements and ‘thanks.’  Fran Ashcroft doesn’t work like that.  Instead, you can use Fran’s photo-guides to accomplish a whole range of forgotten or never-even-thought-of skills.  For instance, you can learn how to make plant pots out of unwanted vinyl albums, how use a string-and-tin can telephone to conduct discrete surveillance or how to make your own oil pollution Greenpeace game.  The prospects are endless.

Things to Make Do With is available principally via Fran’s Bandcamp page and downloads of the album are free of charge.  A small number of CDs will be produced and proceeds from the sale of those CDs will, at Fran’s insistence, go to ‘whichever humanitarian crisis befalls us next.’  Now that’s a worthy cause, if ever I saw one.

No videos for Things to Make Do With, but you can experience the world of Fran Ashcroft by watching the official video to Waiting For The Britpop Revival – a track from Fran’s 2024 album, The Songs That Never Were – below:

Fran Ashcroft: Bandcamp

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