Tim Burgess hits psychedelic bliss on the wonderfully overstuffed ‘Typical Music’
Tim Burgess is the kind of artist that doesn’t really have to give a shit what anyone else thinks about him anymore. That’s thanks to his 30-year run fronting acid house alt-rock heroes The Charlatans, but Burgess now has a healthy solo career that stands apart from his time with Martin Blunt and company. With five albums to his own name that depart from the stylistic flourishes of his day job, Burgess is an artist with a broader skillset than you might expect if you’ve only listened to Some Friendly for the last three decades.
Of course, you would have known that if you picked up I Love the New Sky back in 2020. Whip-smart and always ready to bring the sunshine through your speakers, Burgess was radiant and joyful on his previous LP. But he was also a bit twee and baroque, something that limited his ability to connect. Burgess is truly at his best when there are no rules or boundaries – just open space and endless possibilities.
When striking out on his own, Burgess lets the psychedelia draft outside the walls of the dance club. It’s all about warmth and optimism, something that hits you immediately upon the first listen of Burgess’ sixth studio album, Typical Music. With its ’60s plastic carnival organ and insistent acoustic guitar strums, ‘Here Comes The Weekend’ contains more fun and goofiness than any too-self-conscious artist would ever inject into their music. But Burgess is completely at ease with himself, and he lets it all hand out throughout the mammoth runtime of Typical Music.
What’s astounding is that the double LP doesn’t feel indulgent. Just because Burgess keeps throwing new music for the same runtime as most feature-length films doesn’t mean he’s just serving his own interests. These are all songs that hand together and need to stay together, from the tumbling rhythms of ‘Take Me With You’ to the insistent drive of ‘Tenderhooks’ to the gentle sway of ‘In May’.
That does start to get monotonous around the one-hour mark, however. This isn’t the kind of double album that counteracts its lengthy commitment with a massive array of different sounds, genre-hops, and stylistic switches. In truth, all of Typical Music sounds pretty much the same. But if Burgess is only playing one note, that note is wonderfully realised.
Burgess has a habit of avoiding being boring or rote. The opening blasts of ‘Bloody Nose’ are powerful enough to give you one through the speakers, while the scuzzy effects hanging around the fringes of ‘Slacker’ sound like you’re being sucked into a spaceship in real-time. Even as the instruments and tones begin to reappear and solidify throughout the album’s 22 tracks, they never quite become predictable. That’s because they’re by someone who doesn’t want to repeat himself. It’s more about cohesion than repetition, and Typical Music is nothing if not cohesive.
The only problem is that there’s something majorly rewarding behind taking such a long trip with Burgess. The happy vibes and clever turns can keep you engaged for the album’s full length, but it’s not like there’s some incredible message hanging around at the end. If you listen to all the words, all the arrangements and all the effort put into Typical Music, you won’t get to unlock any secrets. For Burgess, it’s just about making the good times last as long as possible, something that’s as admirable as it is inevitably fleeting.
Ultimately, the scope of Burgess’ ambition keeps Typical Music from being a great record. It’s the same conundrum that follows a kid who wants to eat ice cream all day: eventually, you’ll get sick of ice cream. But it’s still ice cream, and Typical Music is still a wonderfully engaging experience, expansive attitudes and all.
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