Not content with recording with Noel Gallagher, Geordie sensation Andrew Cushin has been opening for him on some massive outdoor gigs this summer. Cushin has released his debut EP ‘You Don’t Belong’ to mark the celebration. Written but Cushin, it was produced by Jason Stafford and recorded The Libertines’ iconic Albion Rooms studio in Margate.
To date, Cushin has released a litany of melancholic tales blessed with Gallagher’s key change joy and soulful lyrics. ‘You Don’t Belong’ for the most part, buries his past and departs on a bombastic carnival ride.
The title track and ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’ fly out of the traps. The former peacocking across the stage with a glam stomp to get awaken the senses. The absence of a killer solo lets down the guitar hook, Cushin vocals, and its energy. An absence that is remedied on ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’. The pop-mod immediacy of Ocean Colour Scene’s ‘Goodbye Old Town’ is met with a joyous solo that sounds like Stephen Stills joined ELO.
Stills’ penchant for debauchery and infectious rapture is rolled out to full effect on the Noel Gallagher-inspired ‘Catch Me If You Can’. Cushin spectacularly finds a way of pulling in the dynamism of ‘Keep on Reaching’ and the wonder of ‘Revolution Song’ into the hedonism of Stills’ guitars.
Cushin returns to his archetypal sound on ‘Runaway’. A track was written on the fly in homage to Gallagher’s ‘Supersonic’. Cushin paints tortured souls like no other and, as the exceptional stargazing production soars, his soul falls into the gutter:
“You drink yourself to death / just like you always do / like the wind used to”
Although it leaves you hollow and despairing, the heart will remain full for this is a young man reminding us all that a working-class hero is still something to be!
*Image courtesy of Sonic PR