GALEN & PAUL
Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day? (Sony)
Paul Simonon – ex-bassist of The Clash, Gorillaz and The Good, The Bad And The Queen – spent lockdown painting and working on tentative ideas for songs in Mallorca. During the 18 months that he spent on the Spanish island, he crossed paths with singer-songwriter Galen Ayers, who had grown up there, and the pair set about writing songs together.
The end result, Galen & Paul’s Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day?, is produced by Tony Visconti with Damon Albarn on melodica, Big Audio Dynamite’s Dan Donovan on keyboards, Polar Bear’s Seb Rochford on drums and TGTBATQ’s Simon Tong contributing guitar.
Album opener Lonely Town sets the table for what is to come. Ayers and Simonon’s voices work well together, like a modern-day Hazelwood and Sinatra, and the Spanish-language No Es Necesario could be a long-lost Morricone gem; It’s Another Night betrays the Clash and TGTBATQ grounding of Simonon, who once described himself as “the Clint Eastwood of bass playing” – keeping things sharp rather than going sonically OTT. He takes a similar approach to his vocal style here – more akin to Albarn, in fact, than the fuelled rage of The Clash. A lovely album that will undoubtedly be heard wafting out of many open windows this summer.
words DAVID NOBAKHT
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