Manchester’s The Kev has brought out a 10 song album You Can’t Say Anything These Days. It’s quirky, fun, and experimental. There might be a few things to say about this.
The first song Talking about the Kev is quite… unusual to say the least. The instrumental comes in and it’s definitely quirky and there’s some talented bass playing in here. The one thing that threw me off this song is that vocals are so much louder than the instrumental. I thought the volume was quiet until the vocals came in. There’s also a lot of self-criticism in here, or Kev has written a song about what people have said about him. It’s quite a different song to start an album and makes me wonder what else is in store.
The next song The FVSDA starts with a gentle play of a violin and drum beat. The vocals come in again and unfortunately they are also louder than the instrumental, so I think there might be a repeating pattern within this album. Kev’s vocals do suit this song. I think most of the songs are quite jokey as this one seems as though it shouldn’t be taken literal.
The third track You Can’t Say Anything These Days is definitely one of those jokey songs. It sounds satire as it talks about things that are in mainstream media. It’s definitely eccentric. Music is definitely subjective and Kev proves this. The fourth track is A Thousand Years. It starts with a woman talking about what Kev used to write about and how he has ‘expanded’ his song writing abilities. This song is about love and how he will save for a house in the future. It’s a chilled out song, but still includes the jokes he is use to putting into his songs.
Fifth song is You’re Amazing. I think this song is also a little bit of a love song. The instrumental is quiet and chilled out. It sounds as if Kev has really put his heart on his sleeve to write this song. It’s 5 minutes of love written in a song. It’s a nice song but does include some jokes here and there.
A lot of these songs include absurd lyrics and swearing, which some may find funny and others may not. The songs do live up to the album’s title…
Track six and seven are The Music of My Youth and What a Piece of Work Is Man? The Music of My Youth is not very appealing to me as the lyrics are a bit too much, regarding the fact he uses silly lyrics to describe women. What a Piece of Work Is Man? is quite the song to have next to a track about how women are being described as ‘bitches’ and how men, in the next track, are being described as some kind of saviours. I will say these two songs are not for me.
Track eight Let’s Be You and Me, track nine and ten are Old Days and We’re All Just Sinners. I find track eight to be quite plain and not have much going for it. Old Days. To start the song, a strum of an electric guitar starts and Kev’s vocals come in. It talks about Kev’s school days and how he used to drink. As the song goes on, it picks up the pace and becomes a little faster but there’s a problem. As we get around the 2 minutes 20 seconds mark, you can’t really hear what Kev is saying in the song. It’s a shame as I was just getting into the track.
We’re All Just Sinners ends the album. He talks about songs he used to write about and speaks of Jesus. But if you are Christian, I do advise not listening to this track as you will definitely be sending Kev some harsh opinions. He does tend to speak about male genitalia a LOT in this track. It’s a very questionable track. It ends the album exactly how it started and Kev has certainly mashed up music and comedy in this album.
A few things to say about this album would be that it is definitely for a certain group of people. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. I did find this album to be very foolish, derisible, and not something I personally would listen to. It’s definitely different and comedic but in some ways it was taken a bit too far and just wasn’t that enjoyable.
CHECK OUT MORE FROM THE KEV HERE
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