Folk troubadour Willy Mason returns with long awaited new album Already Dead

: by Joe Sharratt; in Reviews

When Willy Mason crashed into the early noughties indie scene as a nineteen-year-old with his rallying cry Oxygen, he was hailed as a Bob Dylan for the post-grunge generation, a folk singer-songwriter who had a political message for millenials everywhere. For a couple of years, around the release of his debut album Where The Humans Eat, it felt like Mason was a bonafide global superstar in the making.

Yet the Massachusetts native, to a certain extent, backed away from all of that. After a relentless touring schedule off the back of that first record, Mason returned home, largely keeping himself to himself as he continued writing and recording, away from the public gaze. His second LP If The Ocean Gets Rough arrived in 2007, with a third, Carry On, in 2012, but while both are fine records, they never quite took Mason to the next level that had been predicted by many.

Already Dead is then, perhaps surprisingly given his near twenty year career span, only Mason’s fourth proper studio album, but it’s clear Mason has recaptured that early sparkle here. Opener and lead single Youth On A Spit has little flourishes of electro over its indie sensibilities, lending it an almost New Order feel, while Mason delivers the track’s signature refrain (“Can’t kill me / I’m already dead”) with his trademark low key vocals. Gilded Lie, Oh My Country and Reservation usher in the laid back but razor sharp lyrics and sound that first brought Mason to such widespread attention, the latter in particular very much cut from the same cloth as Oxygen.

Outwit The Devil injects some tempo into proceedings, before If There’s A Heart returns things to a campfire vibe, Mason serenading us with gentle acoustic guitar and his delicate vocals. The album’s big surprise then comes with Worth It, a song that catches you off guard, rounding things off as it does in joyous fashion with it’s jaunty, almost hillbilly rock feel, big riff and whirlwind of piano. Mason may no longer be that fresh-faced young kid we all remember, but he’s clearly still got plenty to say.

Already Dead tracklist: