Baxter Dury (UK)
Baxter Dury (UK)
live
English indie hero Baxter Dury, known for his strong distinctive vocal style and witty lyrics, returns to perform in Bucharest this spring – April 22 at Control Club.
Tickets are now available via Eventbook.ro.
Spanning well over a decade, Baxter Dury’s discography consists of seven studio albums and a best-of compilation. His latest full-length release, the wonderfully named I Thought I Was Better Than You (Heavenly Recordings, 2023), is a new era for him, and with this new era comes a new character. “Faux-confrontational,” Baxter calls him. Instead of just swinging at his past blindfolded with a baseball bat, he talks openly about the toxic cocktail of being born into unfortunately fortunate circumstances, with a persuasive surname but no structure or sense of responsibility with which reap the rewards of it. “Really, it’s about being trapped in an awkward place between something you’re actually quite good at, and somebody else’s success.”
The record also serves as a kind of extension to Baxter’s 2021 book, Chaise Longue, in which he winningly recounted the story of his unique childhood. Not only does he expand the language of the book, using words to paint disconnected images rather than to string sentences (a kind of cockney hieroglyphics), but he often revisits moments within the book.
Perhaps most importantly for Baxter, the way the record plays around with a looser hip-hop inflected style means it becomes a soundtrack of the book itself: “It reflects the kind of music I was listening to back then. Me and my mates weren’t indie kids. We were graffiti boys with colourful shoelaces and boomboxes listening to Afrika Bambaataa and smoking loads.”
The musical shadow of Ian Dury which has loomed over 6 Baxter albums, and over twenty years, finally materialises here. No longer a taboo, Baxter confronts the legacy of his father head on and in doing so exorcises it. The purest and most beautiful way that Baxter achieves this is by having his own son, Kosmo, writing on the record too – safe in the knowledge that he would not be passing on the cultural burden that was passed onto him.
A vibrant record that is a self-deprecating yet poignant reflection on a complicated and chaotic upbringing. - Uncut
Baxter's third cracking album in a row. - Mojo
Dury is alternately very funny, oddly disturbing and genuinely touching, which is a lot of ground to cover in under half an hour. – The Guardian
Baxter Dury – Celebrate Me (video) : https://youtu.be/cm7RC6SQGEQ
Baxter Dury – I’m Not Your Dog (video): https://youtu.be/x_x9tB2Qsyk
