Album Review: Sergeant Buzfuz – Fox Pop

Since the release of the last Sergeant Buzfuz album, 2015’s “Balloons For Thin Linda“, songwriter Joe Murphy has lost both parents, got married, been a victim of a smear campaign due to his activities as a whistleblowing union rep, co-founded charity QQF, a theatre company for adults with special needs, and returned to live in his native Sheffield, he continues to co-run Blang Records and has worked part-time in special needs schools to fund the recording of Sergeant Buzfuz‘s new album, their seventh to date, “Fox Pop” that will be released on the 3rd July via Blang Records. “Fox Pop” follows up on the “Humble Pie” EP that was released in 2017 and the debut full length for Sergeant Buzfuz‘s current line up. “Fox Pop” contains an unexpected collision of styles, two-minute pop songs, ballads, and alt-folk nestle alongside folk punk, post-punk, freakbeat and Celtic influences that are delivered via guitar, mandolin, drums, bass, slide guitar, violin, keyboards, percussion and flute to create something unique.

The opening track ‘There’s Idiots, Then There’s Idiots With Money‘ is a working class anthem that has all the hallmarks of a classic protest song, it combines 60’s harmonies and structure with a biting post punk undercurrent to create something unique, it is followed by ‘Theresa McKee‘, a jangly alt folk pop blast that sits in stark contrast to the previous track. “Fox Pop” continues to weave an idiosyncratic path across the eleven tracks, always lyrically astute but constantly varying the delivery, but despite the eclectic nature of the album I never found myself reaching to skip tracks. “Fox Pop” is one of those albums that doesn’t sit comfortably in a single genre as the influences are drawn from across the board, if you want comparisons then you would be looking at a long list but you can’t start with The Byrds, The Kinks, The Velvet Underground, Squeeze, The Levellers and Pete Bentham And The Dinner Ladies. The end result is that “Fox Pop” is a surprising and politically sussed album that carries a subtle political punch, one that is delivered via an unexpected and eclectic soundtrack.

“Fox Pop” can be pre-ordered via online retailers and digital service providers