Lupen Crook
Love 80

As a solo singer/songwriter of a particularly unique ilk, it would be an unjustified misjudgement to even mention Lupen Crook in the same sentence as other more commercially successful household names of a similar genre, so I won't.

If anything, his leftfield excursions into folk, skiffle, hip-hop and gypsy punk cast him as an older and some may argue wiser compadre to the likes of Jamie T. Even so, this single is quite misleading of the extent of Crook’s talents to a large degree. Ignore the title track for what it’s worth – a fairly turgid affair that recalls late 90s indie of the kind that added dance beats and a campfire light chorus – and skip straight onto the poignant ballad ‘Washing Blood’ or the raggle-taggle gypsy skit ‘Junk’n’Jubilee’, which sums up London scenesters in little over 90 seconds.

Or better still, buy the seven inch for the malignant cry for help that is ‘Blood Letter Baby’ and then wonder in shoulder-shrugging disbelief as to why any one of these three tracks isn’t the a-side of this record.