Baxter Dury – Allbarone

It’s not often you’ll hear of an artist making the best work of their career by their eighth album. However, with Baxter Dury, this couldn’t be truer.

Allbarone’s dancier feel excels due to producer Paul Epworth’s (Adele, Florence + the Machine) touches in the studio. A fortuitous meeting at Glastonbury last year brought the pair together, and their partnership here results in Dury pushing himself to go against the sonic familiarity of his more typically minimal approaches. His Fred again.. collaboration (Baxter (these are my friends)) back in 2021 offered the first signal of where Dury’s sound could travel with some dance-ready tunes thrown into the mix. Now, he has fully embraced them and penned a nine-track tour de force laden with biting observations and curious characters.

The album’s title track sums up this revelatory sound best. Brilliantly punchy and brimming with catchy hooks provided by vocalist JGrrey, its beats are both visceral and textured. Dury sticks to his signature formula of melding funny, relatable scenes with typically cryptic stories – in this case, his misfortune on a date at a well-known wine bar which the track takes its namesake: 'That night in Allbarone / Sat in the rain / Thought about all those promises made'.

Return of the Sharp Heads flows similarly, painting a picture of late-night scenes through hypnotic reverbs and longing lyrics, while Schadenfreude (a German term for pleasure derived by someone else’s misfortune) owes much to Epworth’s fast pace in the studio, forcing Dury to write quicker and trust his initial instincts.

Alpha Dog, Mr W4 and Kubla Khan all showcase Dury’s penchant for being the unbridled central character in the majority of his songs, often to hilarious effect and made all the better with his off-kilter karate moves often seen on the live stage. The anthemic Mockingjay takes romantic inspiration from The Hunger Games, of all places. But while versatile with influences, there’s no doubting the album’s cohesive feel. Epworth’s instrumental arrangements may be seamless throughout, offering plenty of depth and variety, but there’s still plenty of room for Dury’s direct vocals to cut through the mix, assuring he's still the star of the show.

You get the sense that Allbarone is an album that Dury has always had in his locker. Now it’s come to fruition, Aylesbury’s own Serge Gainsbourg shines more singular, enigmatic and full of life than ever. 

Listen to: Allbarone, Schadenfreude